


Finding A Place To Call Home

by marysiak



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe, Bottom Harry, Creature Fic, M/M, Post-Hogwarts, Rough Sex, Top Draco Malfoy, Werewolves
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-16
Updated: 2017-05-08
Packaged: 2018-10-06 06:01:27
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 54,747
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10327340
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/marysiak/pseuds/marysiak
Summary: Feeling directionless after the war, Harry is unexpectedly torn out of his own universe and thrust into another, where he must hide out with Remus Lupin, Teddy and Draco Malfoy as Severus Snape and Hermione try to find a way to send him home and save both his and his unwitting doppelganger's lives.





	1. A Tug in the Right Direction

**Author's Note:**

> From a prompt from my Fandom Trumps Hate auction winner centopiedi.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There are multiple alternate worlds, some varying in only tiny ways and others in larger and more obvious ways. For our sake let us say that the canon Harry Potter universe is Earth 1. None of this story occurs on Earth 1.

**Earth 2 – several years after the war.**

“Please tell me who it is, Harry. Maybe I could help,” Hermione pleaded.

“Can’t,” said Harry morosely into his pint. “Secret.”

“I wouldn’t tell anyone.”

“You think you wouldn’t tell anyone,” said Harry.

“I can keep a secret,” said Hermione indignantly.

“I know that…” Harry back-pedalled. It wasn’t that he thought Hermione would tell anyone, it was more his own sheer terror and humiliation at the idea of anyone knowing. “I just think, in this particular case, that nobody should know. Ever.”

“Did you… did they turn you down? Is that why you’re so upset?”

Harry heaved a deep sigh. “They don’t need to turn me down, there’s no way they would ever be interested in me. I shouldn’t even be interested in them.”

“Oh, come on, Harry. I thought you’d got over thinking like that. You won Witch Weekly’s Most Eligible Bachelor Award.”

“Because I’m a rich war hero,” he pointed out.

“I think that photo of you in the Quidditch showers from 6th year had a lot to do with it too.”

“I can’t believe Colin’s family just gave all his old school photos of me to the press, what were they thinking?” Harry groaned.

“They were still grieving, I’m sure they weren’t thinking. You know what the papers can be like, vultures.” Hermione sniffed and sipped at her wine. “Although what he thought he was doing, taking photos of you in the shower!”

Harry knew Hermione didn’t actually like wine, but she was trying to cultivate adult tastes. Or so she had claimed to Ron during their last argument, which had been something to do with Ron being an immature prat and Hermione being a stuck up cow, from what he had heard of it. Harry loved Ron and Hermione a great deal, but they were pretty trying as a couple between the constant arguments and then the making up… ugh, the making up. Thank Godric that Grimmauld Place was large enough to get several floors away from them when needed.

Of course trying to expand his friendship circle was what had put him in this mess in the first place. Trying to set a good example, showing the world that he held no grudges. Turned out Slytherins could be kind of fun, once you got their defences down a bit. Stupid sexy gits.

“You’re still thinking about them aren’t you,” said Hermione.

“Maybe,” said Harry.

“If you can’t date the person you like, you should just date someone else to take your mind off it. You know Daphne Greengrass might be interested, she’s quite nice as it turns out. Her and Astoria are both quite nice. Which makes you wonder why she’s marrying Malfoy, but I suppose it’s probably some pureblood alliance thing that I wouldn’t understand.” She parroted Malfoy toward the end of her sentence.

“I don’t want to date anyone,” Harry protested, trying to mask his horror at the idea of dating Malfoy’s sister-in-law to be. As if things weren’t bad enough. Perhaps they could double date with Malfoy and Astoria just to add icing to the top of Harry’s shit life. “I think I’m done for tonight, you coming?”

Hermione peered at her half full wine glass and pushed it away. “All right, this white’s a bit too dry anyway.”

–

Harry was wandering the house aimlessly, as he was wont to do these days when Hermione and Ron were out. Up the stairs, through the bedrooms, down the stairs, into the kitchen.

Grimmauld Place was like a tomb sometimes. A revived corpse, the bones sticking through the flowery dress and wig plumped on top of its head. Here was the bedroom that Sirius and Buckbeak had shared. Here was the kitchen where Harry had torn strips off of Remus Lupin for running out on his pregnant wife. There was the stupid umbrella stand that Tonks had always fallen over when she entered the house. There was the burnt and tattered family tree that Regulus Black and Bellatrix Lestrange and even Draco Malfoy appeared on.

Harry felt trapped in between two places, this was the only house he had, and he couldn’t decide if he absolutely hated it or loved it in some perverse kind of way. It was still stained with dark magic and prejudice, but it was his only remaining connection to his godfather. If he was going to stay here, he should make it into a real home. But the very act of staying here seemed to sap him of any strength he had to take on such a massive project. And a part of him felt like it would be erasing the last remnants of Sirius and his brother. Moping around the house made him feel close to his godfather, Sirius had moped around this house, Sirius had hated its ancient furniture and stained walls too.

Harry slept in Regulus’ old room, as if he were the brother Sirius had lost. Nobody used Sirius’ old room. Ron and Hermione had one of the second floor guest bedrooms. Hermione had stripped it down and redecorated it, walking in there was like walking into another house.

Harry pushed open the door of Sirius’ old room for the third time that evening and peered into the gloom, imagining Buckbeak was still laying on the destroyed bed, peering back at him.

“Hey there,” he said softly. He had taken to talking to imaginary people, and imaginary hippogriffs, as long as there was no one in the house to catch him at it. “Where’s Sirius today?” he asked, imagining that Sirius was out running errands and would be back any time.

God he wished he was somewhere else. Somewhere better, somewhere he could have just some of the things he wanted out of life. Where everyone wasn’t dead and he wasn’t left pining after things he could never have… people he couldn’t have.

He thought he heard something behind him and frowned over his shoulder. Ron and Hermione weren’t due back for hours, unless they’d had another argument and cut short their date of course.

But no, it hadn’t been a sound it had been… something like a tug. He felt it again, a strange pull and a feeling as if someone had called his name. But he was certain this time that nobody had.

He gripped his wand tightly and turned around fully. But when the tug came again it was still behind him, and stronger this time. Before he could right himself from stumbling half a step backwards, it came again. And again. Stronger. More compelling. Like a long, slow, sentient portkey reaching out and yanking him off his feet…

\--

**Earth 3**

Harry landed hard on the same parquet floor he had been wrenched from. Only cleaner.

He looked up to see what he momentarily thought was a different room, but quickly realised was the same doorway he had been lurking in… only repainted a bold red colour against gold brocade wallpaper. He did spin around now to see a brand new bed, in the same bright colours. New furniture, clean windows, unfamiliar clothes draped on chairs… and familiar, wasn’t that one of his t-shirts. He took half a step towards it before he was halted by a voice.

“I’ll look in the bedroom,” shouted someone who sounded both familiar and unfamiliar at the same time. “I probably left it there this morning.”

Harry couldn’t put his finger on where he knew the person from. It was a man’s voice… someone from school? He could hear them coming up the stairs. Should he hide? In his own house? Except this was clearly not the same house he had been in moments ago.

Before he could decide what to do the person reached the landing and appeared in the doorway.

Harry stared into his own startled green eyes, behind his own familiar glasses.

“Expelliarmus!” the other him shouted, pointing his own wand at him.

There was a sputter of red light and the slightest of tugs, but Harry’s wand remained firmly in his hand. Shakily he brought it up to point at the other him.

“Don’t move! Don’t try anything or you’ll regret it!” the man said.

“What’s going on?” said Harry.

“Incarcerous!”

Harry deflected the spell with a flick of his wand. “Stop it, I’m not going to attack you.”

“Then what are you going to do?”

They had both dropped into defensive crouches, Harry could see the other him trying to find an opening to get a spell past his defences.

“What did you think you would accomplish, polyjuicing into me and breaking into my house? Going to try and take my place? Why?”

“I haven’t taken polyjuice,” protested Harry, his confusion quickly being replaced by anger. “You must have! But where have you brought me, and why does it look so much like Grimmauld Place?”

“Ginny!” yelled the other Harry. “Floo to the Burrow and then call the office to get some Aurors over here!”

“Ginny?” said Harry. “What’s she doing here?”

Harry heard more pounding on the stairs. “What’s going on?” said Ginny, clearly coming up there rather than doing as she had been told.

“Ginny!” the other Harry yelled in exasperation. “Get back downstairs, it’s not safe!”

Ginny appeared in the doorway and Harry nearly dropped his wand in shock. She was clearly quite pregnant.

She gave a yelp of shock when faced with two Harry’s. “What the fuck is going on?”

“I found him up here,” said the other Harry. “He could be anyone.”

“I’m Harry,” said Harry. “You’re the one impersonating me!”

“Quick,” said Ginny. “Why did I break up with Dean Thomas?”

“He kept trying to help you through the common room door,” said the other Harry at the same time as Harry said. “You thought he pushed you through the common room door.”

Ginny looked surprised, and gave both Harrys a long stare. “What colour underwear was I wearing the first time we had sex?” she asked.

“Red,” said the other Harry.

“We never had sex,” said Harry, feeling slightly disturbed. The most he and Ginny had ever done before breaking up was a bit of heavy petting, which he had later admitted to her didn’t really do anything for him.

Ginny pointed her wand at him. “Who are you? Finite incantatum!”

Harry was distracted enough that this spell hit him, but it did nothing since there was no spell to be ended. But it did bring him back on guard so he could deflect the Stupefy sent his way by the other Harry.

This was getting him nowhere, he needed to get out of here, and away from whomever these people actually were. He needed space to figure out what the hell was going on.

He cast a Jelly Legs Jinx at the same time as his doppelgänger cast Petrificus Totalis. The spells hit each other mid air and did something Harry had never seen before, they seemed to merge and hover uncertainly a moment before zooming off straight at Ginny.

The other Harry dived to protect her and Harry took the opportunity to run past them and out onto the landing. Not stopping even for a moment, though his senses were assaulted by new and old at once as he ran down the stairs. Every step and hall and doorway was exactly where he would expect them to be, but covered in new paint and wallpaper, and not a single familiar piece of furniture.

A hex flashed past his ear as he was followed, but they were far enough behind him and he was moving quickly enough that he didn’t think they would hit him. He leapt the stairs three at a time, hurtling around the corners at high speed, finally reaching the entry way, which was now painted in dazzling white with red touches. The stretch of wall that should have housed the immovable portrait of Walburga Black, behind her moth eaten curtain, held a painting of Hogwarts instead.

Harry threw himself at the front door, wrenching it open, hearing a spell hit the wood on the inside just as he threw himself outside and Apparated to the first place he could think of.

He stumbled to the ground of the Leaky Cauldron apparition point, desperately checking his body parts to make sure all of him had made it. He moved a few steps away and sat down on the ground panting. After a few moments he cast a Patronus and sent it to Hermione, asking her to meet him in the Leaky straight away.

She had Apparated there before he had even gone in the door.

“Harry! What is it, what’s happened?”

Harry grasped her arm gratefully. “Thank God, Hermione. There’s another me! An imposter! Polyjuice I guess. They kidnapped me somehow, I think. I don’t know. None of it makes sense.”

Hermione looked suitably shocked. “Where did they take you, how did you get away?”

“That’s the weird thing, it’s like I was still in Grimmauld Place, only everything looked different. Even when I stepped out the door it looked like the same square Grimmauld has always been in, though I didn’t get much chance to look around. They were chasing me, so I Apparated here and called you.”

“They?”

“Yeah, someone who looked like Ginny was there too. Except get this – she was pregnant!”

Hermione gave him a very odd look. “Why would that be strange? Everyone knows Ginny’s pregnant, if they were going to pretend to be her of course they’d pretend they were pregnant too.”

Harry edged away slightly. “Hermione… Ginny’s not pregnant. Or if she is she certainly hasn’t told Ron or I would have heard about it.”

“Did they Confund you?” asked Hermione, looking worried.

“What? No, it was some sort of weird portkey I think. Except I never touched anything, but it felt a bit like a portkey. They tried to attack me after that, but the only spell they hit me with was a Finite. Which is a weird thing to throw at someone, it was like the person who looked like Ginny really believed they were Ginny, and didn’t believe I was Harry. Which doesn’t make sense. That’s what I meant before, the whole thing didn’t make any sense.”

“Let’s go in and sit down,” said Hermione. “I think you need to talk me through exactly what happened. And I should call Ginny.”

“Why would you call Ginny?”

“Harry,” said Hermione, sounding annoyed. “If you were kidnapped out of your house Ginny’s probably noticed you’re gone. She’ll be worried.”

“Why would she even know I was missing, what are you on about Hermione?”

“What am I on about? What are you on about, Harry Potter? Of course your wife is going to notice that you’ve vanished!”

“My...” Harry took two fast steps back. “My what?”

“Harry? I think maybe we should go to St Mungo’s and get you checked out. I’ll side along you.”

“No!” Harry jerked away as she tried to catch his arm. “Don’t touch me!”

She was in on it. This wasn’t Hermione. Somehow his Patronus must have been intercepted.

He ducked away from her. He had to get somewhere they couldn’t possibly reach, somewhere really safe. With a sharp twist he Apparated to the outskirts of Hogsmeade and began running down the path to the gates of Hogwarts.

–

When he reached the Gates, slightly out of breath, he paused, uncertain. His last Patronus had clearly been intercepted, but he needed to contact someone inside to let him through the Gates. Unless… he tugged experimentally at them and was surprised but relieved that they opened for him easily. He threw himself onwards across the frozen grounds towards Hagrid’s hut.

But when he got there Hagrid’s hut was cold and empty, the door unlocked and the room full of dust and spiders. Though thankfully they were normal sized ones. It looked like it had been cleared out years ago, which was odd because Harry hadn’t heard anything from Hagrid about moving and he had seen him only a few months ago. He poked around a bit uncertainly, a feeling of dread seeping into his guts like cold water pooling.

Eventually he left and headed up towards the school. It was early January and the school wasn’t back yet for the spring term, but the teachers should be around. If he couldn’t find Hagrid he could always go to Professor McGonagall.

The school was looking good, the final repairs had been finished last summer and you wouldn’t know to look at it now that the school had ever been damaged. Harry hadn’t been back in a long time. Even with all the rubble gone, it still reminded him strongly of the final battle, of a long walk in the opposite direction into the forest.

The sun was setting and the walls glowed orange with the light. He walked up the stairs to the main entrance and used his wand to open the heavy doors. They were not locked. Once inside he headed first for the Great Hall, looking out for anyone he might know. The Hall was empty but for the initial preparations for dinner. He turned back at the door and froze on the spot.

Stepping out of the hallway from the dungeons was Severus Snape. He spotted Harry immediately.

“Potter,” he said without rancour. “What are you doing here?”

“Who… What… How...” sputtered Harry, suddenly thinking to raise his wand and point it at the impossibility standing before him.

Snape frowned at him. “Whatever is the matter with you, Potter?”

“Who are you!?” demanded Harry.

Snape raised an eyebrow. “What have you done to yourself this time? Finally been hit one too many times in the head?”

“Answer my question or I’ll hex you,” said Harry. “Snape’s dead, he’s been dead for years, so there’s no point pretending.”

“Potter,” said Snape slowly. He hadn’t raised his wand, but he had it gripped tightly in his hand. “I can assure you I am quite alive.” He paused thoughtfully. “Why did I stop giving you Occlumency lessons in your fifth year.”

Harry started at that, not many people even knew Snape had tried to teach him Occlumency. His wand wavered a little. “Because I looked at your memories without permission,” he answered. He thought for a moment for something that would really test him. “What was in the letter you found that belonged to my Aunt when she was a child?” he said with a challenging jerk of his chin.

“A response from Albus Dumbledore telling her she couldn’t go to Hogwarts,” replied Snape.

Harry dropped his wand. He had told nobody that, nobody knew except for Snape, Harry’s dead Mother and his Aunt Petunia. “How...” he said again.

Snape approached him cautiously, he looked at the wand on the ground, but did not pick it up. “Why would you think I was dead, Potter?” he asked.

“I saw you,” said Harry, breathless. “I saw Voldemort kill you, saw Nagini do it… you gave me your memories and then you died. I was there!”

Snape looked very confused and slightly alarmed. “Potter… that did not happen. Have you been Confunded? Where were you before you came here?”

Harry just stared at Snape as his mind raced.

“I think you had better come with me.” Snape bent to pick up his fallen wand and then took Harry’s arm and tugged him away from the Great Hall and back down the corridor he had appeared from.

Harry followed him, dazed, barely noticing the walls and portraits as they passed them, until finally they were in Snape’s office.

Snape pushed him into the chair in front of his desk and sat down, summoning a bottle of Scotch and two glasses from a cabinet nearby.

“Here, drink this. You look like you need it.”

Harry downed the proffered drink in one gulp. “Have I gone mad?”

Snape’s face twisted in what almost looked like amusement. “I have long suspected the weakness of your mind, but let us not jump to conclusions just yet. What brought you to the school today?”

“I… I was kidnapped by someone who looked like me. But I escaped and I called Hermione… but she seemed to be an imposter too. But… but if you’re alive...”

“Kidnapped?” Snape leaned forward. “Describe to me exactly what happened.”

So Harry did, reaching for every last detail of what had happened from the moment he had felt the strange pull. Snape listened silently until he was done.

“I apologise in advance for this,” Snape said.

“What...” said Harry just as Snape pointed his wand and said, “Legilimens.”

His Occlumency was no better now than it had been at fifteen and Harry cried out in pain as Snape tore through his memories at speed. His memory of Snape’s death, already close to the surface, was yanked to the forefront and pored over. Then after that the events of the past few hours.

When Snape released him Harry slumped back in the chair panting, before standing up angrily. “What the fuck...”

Snape held up his hand. “Please, Potter, restrain yourself. While I’m sure that was unpleasant, it was necessary. You were not kidnapped, at least not in the more commonly understood sense of the word.”

“Then what...”

“Sit down and I will explain, as best I can.”

Harry dropped back into his chair, still furious, his head pounding.

“Here,” said Snape, summoning a vial of potion from a cupboard. “For the headache.”

Harry glowered at him, but drank it nevertheless. If he had learned anything in the war, it was to trust Severus Snape no matter how unusual the circumstances seemed to be.

“One of two things has happened. Either your memories have been tampered with… or, and while this seems more unlikely the evidence suggests it to be the case, you have been wrenched out of your own reality and into this one.”

“I’ve… what? What does that even mean? Another reality?”

“A universe in which you apparently did not marry and impregnate Miss Weasley. A universe in which I am dead and Rubeus Hagrid is alive.”

Harry gaped at him, but one thing caught his attention in particular. “Hagrid?”

“Hagrid was killed during the Battle of Hogwarts. I presume in your universe he survived, as you were intending to visit with him when you travelled here.”

“Hagrid’s dead?” Harry couldn’t stop his eyes filling with tears at even the thought of it. “No,” he whispered.

“I am afraid so. I was unable to ascertain anything you may have done to instigate this journey, so I can only presume somebody else cast the spell that sent you here. Do you have any idea whom it might have been?”

“Who? I...” Harry tried to keep up, but the very idea he was in some sort of alternate universe was almost too much to take in without trying to figure out who might have sent him here. “Can I get back?”

“Without knowing how you came to be here in the first place, I really have no idea. I have never heard of such magic being performed before. Wizards have long been aware of the existence of alternate realities, but no one has ever, to my knowledge, moved from one into another. Or if they have, they have never come back to tell the tale.”

Harry stared at him in horror. “What am I going to do?”

“First things first,” said Snape. “The new term starts in only a couple of days, you cannot stay here, nor can you go home… as you are already there. I will deal with the panic your other self and Miss Granger have no doubt worked themselves into over your appearance. In the meantime I suggest you go to Lupin’s, you won’t be the first stray he’s taken in. It’s out of the way and your friends are not inclined to visit.”

“Lupin?” said Harry. “Remus is alive!”

Snape shook his head in frustration. “Yes, Remus Lupin is still alive. Unfortunately or fortunately rather depending on your point of view.”

“And Tonks! Is Tonks alive!”

“No,” said Snape shortly. “Nymphadora Tonks died in the Battle of Hogwarts.”

“Oh,” Harry’s head was spinning so much he could barely take things in. “Can I stay here tonight? I don’t think I can cope with much more of this right now.”

“I suppose that can be arranged. There are no students in the Slytherin dormitories at the moment, do you know your way?”

Harry nodded.

“The password is Veritaserum. I suggest you stay there until I fetch you tomorrow, it will only confuse matters if you speak to any of the other staff.”

“Fine.” Harry picked up his wand and stood up.

Snape watched him leave the room, wondering if it was even safe to leave him to find his own way to the dormitories.

But he certainly wasn’t going to babysit Potter any more than necessary, especially as he now had the irritating task of contacting Miss Granger and the other Potter… Salazar what a thought, two Harry Potter’s in one universe. As if one weren’t quite enough!

He shook his head and wondered what Albus would have made of the situation, then began composing an owl to send to Granger.

 


	2. A Pack of Wolves

Harry awoke early and ravenously hungry, as he hadn’t eaten dinner the day before. He had a moment of panic as he didn’t recognise the green draped room he found himself in, before remembering where he was. Then he had another longer panic as he remembered why he was in the Slytherin dorm rooms at Hogwarts.

He rose and immediately set out to find Snape again, if for no other reason than to prove he hadn’t imagined speaking to him yesterday. Snape was not in his office, and Harry had no idea where his personal quarters were, so he headed up to the main body of the school intent on at least finding breakfast.

In the Main Hall he found food and a scattering of students and teachers; it being the Christmas Holidays still. Professor McGonagall stood in surprise and he made his way awkwardly through the hall to greet her, suddenly remembering that Snape had told him not to go wandering around the school talking to people.

“Potter, what brings you to Hogwarts?”

“Good morning, Professor. Um… would you know where Professor Snape might be?”

“He usually breakfasts in his quarters during the holidays.”

“Right.” Harry eyed the plate of bacon on the table with a growling stomach.

“He never said he was expecting you. How is Ginny, only a month to go now isn’t it?”

“Um…” said Harry. “She’s… fine. Great. Yeah. Do you mind if I just?” He gestured to the bacon.

“What? Oh, of course. Why don’t you sit down. I can show you to Severus’ quarters after breakfast.”

Harry walked around the table, trying to ignore the smattering of students whispering and staring at him. He pulled out the chair next to Professor McGonagall and sat down, swiftly constructing a bacon and egg roll.

“You seem a bit out of sorts, Potter,” said Minerva, with concern. “I hope nothing untoward has happened.”

“Um… no… just, er...” Harry didn’t really know what to say. If Snape was right, and he wasn’t convinced of that entirely, he wasn’t sure if it was safe to go about just telling people he was from some other reality, or if he ought to be pretending to be the Harry Potter he had met yesterday. Whom he didn’t know anything about other than that he was married to Ginny and about to become a father. And that Ginny had apparently been wearing red pants the first time they had had sex. He had had sex. With Ginny. He poured himself a large cup of tea. “Nothing serious,” he said. “Just something I thought he could help me with.”

“Hmm,” said Professor McGonagall.

Harry bolted his breakfast in a rather undignified fashion, figuring if his mouth was full he couldn’t say anything he shouldn’t.

“I have the worrying feeling that you are up to something, Potter,” McGonagall said as they exited the Great Hall. “But I can’t help but think that if anyone is unlikely to let you get away with mischief it is Severus Snape.”

When they opened the door to Snape’s quarters after his sharp “Enter”, Harry had to hold himself together with everything he had at the sight of Remus Lupin.

Professor McGonagall nodded to the erstwhile Professor. “Good morning, Remus. Severus. You have an unexpected guest. Well, unexpected to me at least.” She eyed Snape, waiting for any information he might provide.

“Thank you, Minerva,” replied Snape, as both men stood up.

Nobody said anything more and there was a momentary stand off before Professor McGonagall said, “Very well, shall I see you all for lunch?”

“I am afraid not,” replied Snape smoothly. “We have plans already.”

McGonagall sniffed and left, closing the door behind her.

Harry let out a breath he hadn’t known he had been holding, only to have it come out as a sob. He clapped his hand to his mouth to try and control himself, but it couldn’t be done. Tears refused to be held back at the sight of the Remus Lupin, alive, and by the looks of things, well.

Harry spun around to face the door, embarrassed. A moment later he felt a cautious hand on his shoulder.

“Severus has explained to me what he thinks may have happened,” said Remus softly. “I understand why it might be… upsetting to see me. It’s quite all right.”

Harry breathed deeply, not turning around. “Who else?” he asked in a choked voice. “Did… is Sirius?”

“No,” said Remus heavily. “Sirius died in the Ministry in your fifth year.”

“Fred,” Harry gasped. “What about Fred Weasley? Or… fuck… who is dead?”

“Come and sit down,” said Remus.

Harry let Remus lead him over to the settee and sit him down. He swiped at his eyes, not wanting Snape to see his tears.

It was Snape, however, who spoke. “I won’t enumerate all the deaths that occurred during the war, but of the people you might have known there were Nymphadora Tonks, in the battle, and her father sometime before that, Hagrid, Fred Weasley, Colin Creevey...”

As Snape continued Harry realised none of the deaths were surprises, and no-one new seemed to be have been left out.

“All those are the same,” he said when Snape finished. “So what changed? Why did you two survive when all the other deaths are the same?”

“Perhaps it might help if you told me why Voldemort killed me in your reality, and when it happened?” responded Snape.

“You already looked through my memories, don’t you know?”

“Legilimency is not mind reading per se, and I did not pry in too much detail as that is far more painful than a cursory look. I saw my death only briefly, just to verify that you had indeed seen it happen. I presume Voldemort discover my allegiances?”

“No,” said Harry. “It was during the last battle. He thought you were the master of the Elder Wand, so he killed you to make it his. But it was never yours, Draco had disarmed Dumbledore before you killed him.”

“Before I killed him?” said Snape in surprise.

Harry looked back at him. “You didn’t kill Professor Dumbledore?”

Snape paused, uncertain as to what he should say. “Albus asked me to, he made me promise that I would be the one to do it. But I was too late,” he said finally, sadly. “By the time I reached the top of the Astronomy Tower he was already dead.”

“Malfoy?” gasped Harry.

“No,” said Snape, frowning. “Fenrir Greyback.”

“Greyback’s body was found after the battle,” added Remus. “In the Shrieking Shack. You… I mean Harry told me later that Nagini had killed him, he wouldn’t tell me why.”

“Then that’s the difference,” said Harry. “Greyback instead of Snape. And somehow that changed things enough that you lived too...”

“If I had seen Greyback during the Battle I would have gone after him,” said Remus. “But I never saw him. Was it… did he kill me?”

“No,” said Harry. “It was Dolohov I think.”

“One small change can have many unforeseen effects,” said Snape. “Greyback being elsewhere could have easily caused you to also be elsewhere in the battle and never come across Dolohov.”

“Lavender Brown was killed by Greyback, and you said she still died,” Harry said, confused.

“I don’t know who killed her, but Lavender Brown was killed by a curse,” said Remus. “Greyback never killed with magic, he could only cast the simplest of spells.”

“But does the difference have anything to do with how I ended up here?” asked Harry. “I mean why would someone send me here to this specific reality?”

“They may not have sent you here intentionally,” said Snape thoughtfully. “As I said before, travel between realities is not a known branch of magic. It may be that they cast a spell purely intended to get rid of you.”

“And I just ended up here at random?”

“Possibly.”

“Then maybe it’s a spell that people think… a vanishing spell!” cried Harry. “When you vanish things maybe they go to a different reality!”

Snape sighed. “Don’t be tiresome, Potter. Vanishing spells are perfectly well researched and understood. When you vanish something its atoms are simply spread across such a wide area that it is as if the thing never existed. But it doesn’t actually go anywhere.”

“Oh,” said Harry.

“I shall research the area, and I have recruited the inimitable Miss Granger to assist me. As she was unlikely to be so easily fooled as yourself I chose to tell her the truth and have her persuade your other self that the situation had been dealt with.”

“Why can’t we just tell me… him the truth as well?” asked Harry.

“I am not entirely sure how safe it is to have him aware of your existence.”

“You already know how dangerous it can be to bump into yourself when using a time turner,” added Lupin. “We’re concerned that there may be unknown consequences to having two of you in existence in one universe. So we’d rather keep you as separate as possible.”

“But I’m coming to stay with you, aren’t I?” asked Harry. “Surely he visits you to see Teddy… there is still a Teddy isn’t there!?”

“Yes, there is still a Teddy,” Remus reassured him. “But I usually take him to visit you at Grimmauld Place or at the Burrow, or we meet up in Diagon Alley. It’s easier that way.” He looked thoughtful. “What happened to Teddy in your reality? Where did he go?”

“He lives with Andromeda,” Harry replied. “Grimmauld Place is still kind of a tip in my world, so I mostly visit Teddy at her house.”

By this point Snape seemed determined to be shot of Harry as soon as possible, so before long he found himself walking back down to the school gates with Remus.

“It’s strange,” said Harry, realising he was empty handed but for his wand. “All my possessions must still be here, in this world - but they belong to someone else. I’ve got nothing, it’s all his; the house, my Gringotts vault, my Dad’s cloak… even my photo albums.”

“If we can find a way to send you back, we will,” Remus tried to reassure him. “And with Hermione on the case I’m sure it will take no time at all.”

Harry smiled, as Lupin had intended him to. “I’m glad she knows the truth. She must have thought I’d gone mad yesterday. I certainly thought I had, by the time I bumped into Snape.”

“It’s strange to think there are other realities out there. Ones where I’m dead… and perhaps ones where Dora and I both survived the war.”

“Yeah,” agreed Harry, thinking about realities where Sirius might be alive, or even realities where his parents hadn’t been killed. “And I suppose there must be realities where we lost the war, too. I guess I should be glad I didn’t end up in one of those.”

They reached the gate and passed out of the school grounds. Harry was shivering by now, he hadn’t noticed the cold so much yesterday between the panic and the running, but he was not at all dressed for it. He was lucky he’d been wearing his trainers yesterday when he’d run out of the house, Hermione was always nagging him about wearing his shoes in the house. Good thing he rarely listened to her. He wondered what he was going to do about clothes, it wasn’t like Remus had a lot of money and he didn’t want to be a burden.

“I’ll sidelong you,” Remus suggested, offering an arm. “I didn’t move there till after the war, so I suppose you’ve never been before.”

Harry took it with no protest, the body heat more than welcome. Not that he had long to appreciate it before the unpleasant squeeze of Apparition carried them away.

They arrived on the front path of a small cottage and if anything it was even colder here than it had been at Hogwarts. Harry looked around, the front garden extended around the sides of the house and presumably met up with a back garden. There were tall fences all around the property and beyond them he could see even taller trees, suggesting a forest. Snow drifted against the fence, and the edges of the flower beds and the path were slippery with ice.

“Where are we?” he asked. “I mean I know it’s your house… but where is it?”

Remus led him up the path. “We’re still in Scotland, I wanted somewhere as uninhabited as possible, just in case.”

Harry understood, he knew how paranoid Remus had always been about the possibility he could ever get out in his wolf form and hurt somebody.

“The nearest town is little more than a few houses several miles away, it’s called Balnacra. We’re about half way in between Inverness and the Island of Skye if that helps.”

“My geography was never great,” Harry admitted.

“Further north than Hogwarts.” Remus opened the front door and ushered Harry in. “We’re back,” he called out.

“Who’s we?” came a response from further into the house.

“Who’s that?” said Harry.

“Ah,” said Remus. “Of course if I was dead he wouldn’t be...”

A figure walked out into the hall with Teddy on their hip.

“Malfoy!” said Harry. Although the figure was far from familiar.

This Malfoy had a nasty scar running from his jaw down the side of his neck and was wearing jeans and a sweater with a stain on the front. His hair was in a lopsided pony tail with strands falling out of it, Teddy had a hold of the end of it and was probably responsible for the state it was in by the way he was tugging on it. Harry had never in his life seen Draco Malfoy so dishevelled, even after dragging him out of the Room of Requirement. It was very disconcerting.

“Potter?” Malfoy looked uncertain.

“Unca Hawwy!” squealed Teddy, turning his hair black and leaning out so far that Malfoy almost dropped him.

Harry automatically stepped forward to rescue Teddy from Malfoy’s grasp. “What are you doing here?”

Malfoy looked between Harry and Remus. “I could ask you the same thing.”

“Let’s go into the living room and sit down,” said Remus. He took Teddy from Harry and pushed him towards the door Malfoy was still standing in.

“Daddy we play dagons,” Teddy said.

“Not now, Teddy,” muttered Remus.

“He means we were playing dragons,” said Malfoy.

Remus sat down and Teddy squiggled away to fetch something. “Harry is going to be staying with us for a while, it’s... complicated.”

“You live here?” said Harry, looking extremely surprised and oddly embarrassed.

“Of course I live here,” retorted Malfoy. “Why else have you refused to visit even once in three years. So what’s brought you here now… surely girl Weasley didn’t toss you out of your own house?”

Harry opened his mouth to defend himself, but then shut it again. After all it hadn’t been him who hadn’t visited. “Um...”

“It made sense for Draco to live here, there weren’t really other suitable options,” said Lupin.

“Why doesn’t he live in Malfoy Manor, that’s where he...” Harry trailed off before he mentioned alternate realities.

“It’s all right Harry, he’ll have to know if you’re staying here.”

“Dagon for Daddy.”

Remus took the dragon toy Teddy was trying to thrust into his hands. “This isn’t who you think it is,” he told Malfoy. “Or not exactly. This Harry is from an alternate reality where things are somewhat different than they are here.”

Malfoy laughed automatically, clearly thinking this was some sort of joke. Then stopped immediately. “Wait… what?”

“I… didn’t survive the war in that reality, so you couldn’t have lived with me there. That’s why he was surprised to see you.”

“Dagon for Unca Harry,” said Teddy, pushing an animated plastic red dragon into Harry’s hands, his r’s coming and going just as they did in his own universe.

“Thanks,” Harry muttered.

“We don’t know how it happened,” Remus continued. “Severus is looking into it. But Harry needs somewhere to stay in the meantime. Somewhere he won’t bump into his other self.”

“That’s ridiculous,” Malfoy declared. “You can’t travel between realities, everyone knows that.”

“Nevertheless,” said Lupin.

“Prove it,” Malfoy demanded.

“How am I supposed to do that?” said Harry, annoyed. “If Snape believes me then isn’t that enough for you?”

“Dagon, Dwaco!” Teddy insisted, trying to get Malfoy to take the green dragon he’d been pushing at him.

“Yes, dragon,” said Malfoy with faint irritation, taking it at last.

“It is Harry,” said Remus. “Severus and I are certain of it. And it’s not our Harry. What other explanation is there?”

“That he’s an imposter that’s fooled you,” Malfoy retorted, but he looked uncertain.

“So ask me something only I would know,” said Harry, fairly certain Malfoy was just being difficult because he could. “But make it something from school cause everything seems to have happened differently after that.”

“Very convenient,” sneered Malfoy.

“Oh come on, you know there’s stuff an imposter wouldn’t know. Think of something and get this over with.” Harry was a little put out that Malfoy still seemed to dislike him so much. In his world they could at least be considered friendly acquaintances, although it had taken a while.

Malfoy sniffed dismissively. “How do I know what the real Potter’s blabbed to other people about.”

“Godric, Malfoy, you’re still an arse I see. We first met in Madame Malkin’s before first year, but you never told me your name. We went on detention together into the Forbidden Forest and saw Voldemort drinking blood from a unicorn and you ran away and left me. Will that do it?”

Malfoy narrowed his eyes at Harry. “I didn’t run away, I made a strategic retreat. It’s not my fault you were stupid enough to stand there staring at it. We were eleven, what exactly was your cunning plan beyond getting yourself killed?”

Harry felt a smile curve his lips against his will. “Whatever, Malfoy. So are either of you going to explain why you’re living here?”

“As if you don’t know!” Malfoy scoffed.

“No,” said Harry. “I don’t. In my reality you were living in Malfoy Manor, preparing to get married in the spring.” He tried not to sound bitter about it and didn’t quite manage.

“Married!” choked Malfoy, too shocked to pick up on any of Harry’s feelings. “To who?”

“Astoria Greengrass,” said Harry shortly.

Malfoy looked completely taken aback. “But… do you mean… wasn’t I...” He couldn’t seem to get to the end of a sentence, which wasn’t like him at all.

“What Draco is trying to ask,” said Lupin. “Is whether he is a werewolf in your reality.”

“What?” Harry’s mouth dropped open.

“Wolf wolf wolf,” cheered Teddy and promptly grew his ears into grey furry wolf ears and began growling.

Malfoy stood up abruptly and walked out of the room.

Teddy sunk his teeth into Harry’s trouser leg and began savaging it. Harry heard the material rip. “Hey!” He grabbed Teddy and lifted him away, a strip of fabric came with him. Teddy had morphed his teeth into pointy wolf teeth.

“Oh, sorry. He’s started doing that a lot,” Remus took him from Harry’s grip. “Teddy! Stop that right now! What have we said about being a wolf?”

“No bitin’,” said Teddy sullenly as the ears and teeth morphed away, he switched his colouring to match Remus.

“Malfoy’s a werewolf?” Harry asked cautiously.

“Yes,” said Remus, depositing Teddy away from Harry. “It never occurred to me that he might not be in your reality. It happened in the summer between his 6th and 7th years, a punishment to him for failing to kill Dumbledore and… ah, I see... it was also a gift to Greyback for succeeding. Which in your world never happened. Voldemort knew it would hit his parents hard, pureblood society is particularly anti-werewolf as we can’t inherit land or titles. His Father distanced himself immediately. Severus asked me to take him in after the war and I was happy to, he’s been an enormous help with Teddy. I hope you’ll try not to fight with him too much. He’s not the boy he was, and I’m sure he’s not the man he was in your reality. Dealing with something like this… it changes you.”

“I didn’t mean to argue with him, he just took me by surprise. We had got past all that in my reality, actually. I wouldn’t say we were friends, but… we were trying. Well I was, he was kind of an arse still. But that’s just how he is.”

“I’m glad to hear that, there’s still a lot of antagonism between the two of you in this reality. You didn’t agree with my decision to let him stay with me, we argued about it quite a lot. You thought he’d be a bad influence on Teddy. But I couldn’t turn him away, he had nowhere else to go.”

“Sounds like _I’m_ a bit of an arse in this reality.”

“Couldn’t agree more,” said Malfoy unexpectedly from the door. He came in levitating a tray full of tea things.

He set the tray down and handed Teddy a cup of juice, which he promptly slopped half down his front and onto the carpet. Malfoy cast a vanishing charm on the spill almost automatically as he poured out the tea.

Never had Harry felt the impact of being in another reality more strongly than in this moment, as Draco Malfoy served him tea. Even seeing Snape and Remus alive hadn’t felt so strange, emotional yes, but not bizarre. In his reality Malfoy never even got up to fetch his own round in a pub, he was happy to pay but he always made someone else do the legwork.

“Thanks,” he muttered, feeling truly lost.

“You all right, Harry?” Remus asked.

“Play dagons,” said Teddy, bashing his own dragon against the one Harry was still holding. “Rargh.”

\--

The cottage was small enough that where Harry would sleep took a bit of organisation. There were only three bedrooms, one for each of the three people living there. Remus offered to sleep on the sofa, but Harry wouldn’t turn him out of his own room, especially as they had no idea how long he might be there.

In the end Remus put Teddy down in his room and transfigured Teddy’s small bed into one large enough for Harry. Harry changed into borrowed pyjamas in a room decorated with dragons and scattered with toys. It made him wonder what his bedroom had looked like when he was little, he supposed Remus might know. Maybe he could ask him in the morning.

There was a light knock on the door.

“Yes?”

The door cracked open and Malfoy sidled in looking nervous. “Hi, do you... need anything?”

Harry squinted at him, wondering if it was Malfoy who was an imposter. “I’m fine.” He tugged at the loose pyjama top, feeling a bit embarrassed. Remus was a lot bigger than him and he hadn’t bothered transfiguring the borrowed night clothes smaller, since they were just for bed. But then he hadn’t expected Malfoy to be standing there looking at him.

“I just… I wondered… when did it happen?”

“Sorry what?”

“When did you get here, I mean?”

“Oh, yesterday. Why?”

Malfoy looked worried. “No reason. I’ll just… leave you to it then. Good night.”

“Night,” said Harry.

He stared at the closed door in bewilderment for a bit. He wasn’t sure what to make of this Malfoy. He was very different from the one in his world, and he’d kind of gotten to like that one. Malfoy being an arsehole had become weirdly comforting. Then there was the fact he fancied the pants off him. But that was beside the point, Malfoy being a werewolf wasn’t going to make him any less straight than he had been in Harry’s world.

Harry lay down and pulled up the covers, then lay awake for a very long time.


	3. Getting To Know You

“It’s related to the boggart,” Hermione explained. “Not as nasty, but it can be very confusing. It’s not common in the UK at all, I’ll have to let the Department for Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures know you saw one.”

“How did it even get in?” Harry asked.

“Oh, they can get through tiny cracks. They’re looking for food, they imitate someone in the house as camouflage. They feed on confusion, so getting caught is intentional. They feed on your confusion and then they run.”

“Weird,” said Harry. “Every time I think I have a handle on the wizarding world something I’ve never heard of shows up.”

“I hadn’t heard of them either,” said Ginny.

“Like I said,” Hermione repeated. “They’re not usually found in the UK. Maybe global warming is expanding their range.”

“Well, it’s good to know it wasn’t anything sinister, and it’s not like anyone was hurt,” said Harry, moving on rapidly. “Have you decided what you’re doing for your hen night yet?”

Hermione had noticed that Harry tended to avoid her rants about the environment and the effect of global warming on magical plants and creatures and how the Ministry wasn’t taking it seriously enough. Usually it annoyed her, but this time it was working in her favour. Harry preferred problems he could deal with by arresting them.

“Yes, not that it’s any of your business. You can tell Ron I won’t ask about his stag night if he doesn’t interfere with what we’re going to be doing.”

Ginny laughed. “I bet they just go to the Leaky and get pissed again.” She was referring to Harry’s stag night, organised by Ron.

“That was what I wanted to do,” Harry groused. “Not all of us need strippers and champagne to have a good time!”

Hermione laughed along with Ginny. The younger witches hen night had been pretty wild, organised by her team mates in the Holyhead Harpies, the Quidditch team Ginny had played for until she got too pregnant to fly safely.

“I bet Ron wouldn’t mind a few strippers,” teased Ginny.

“I don’t want to know,” said Hermione. “And I don’t want to see photos afterwards either!”

“Wish I hadn’t,” Harry grumbled.

He could be a bit staid at times, especially in comparison to Ginny who had quite a naughty streak. Hermione had been fighting a losing battle for years over hearing Ginny’s many tales of the bedroom. There were some things about Harry she just really didn’t need to know. Especially… oh ugh… now she was thinking about it again… some things just couldn’t be unheard.

“Luna said she can come after all,” said Hermione, trying to stop thinking about it. “Apparently whatever migration it was she was going to Uganda to see happened earlier than expected and she missed it.”

“Fwoopers,” said Harry absent mindedly.

“That’s an actual magical creature,” said Hermione. “They’re in Fantastic Beasts. Are you sure?”

“Yup. And all Luna’s creatures are real,” Harry said with a grin. “It’s just that some of them are more real than others.”

\--

Later on in the peace of her study, Hermione sat down before a rousingly tall stack of books.

Much as she loved Harry, he could be almost as dense as Ron sometimes. Ginny was sharper, but they both trusted Hermione, and hopefully by the time they realised what she had told them was complete and utter bullshit they would have found a way to return the other Harry to his own reality.

Hermione was familiar with multi-universe theory, both the magical and muggle versions. But after school she had chosen to go into politics rather than magical research, it had seemed the more important task, so she had a lot of catching up to do on the topic.

Despite Severus being convinced, she found it hard to fathom that it could actually be true. That another Harry could have somehow broken from one universe into another… but then if anyone were going to do something so patently absurd of course it would be Harry. Survive the Killing Curse, twice, become master of the Elder Wand by accident, slay the unkillable Dark Lord and then pop between universes for an encore. Sometimes Hermione suspected him of being some sort of warp in the weft of the universe, rules and laws just seemed to pass him by.

Making it even more amusing that he was the most parochial of all of them. Married with a baby on the way, going to work for the Aurors straight out of school. He never meant to be a rule breaker, he just kept doing it despite himself. All he wanted was a quiet, normal life.

But she was distracting herself, and she had several weighty tomes to get through before she would allow herself to go to bed.

–

Harry woke up to the sound of a small child making a piercingly loud noise.

As he blinked away his sleep he could hear laughter from downstairs. He got up and twitched the curtains open. It was bright and crisply sunny outside in that way that told you it must have been absolutely freezing last night.

He had slept surprisingly well once he had actually fallen asleep. No nightmares, just an odd dream about riding a giant talking plastic dragon. When he put his watch on he discovered it was mid-morning already. No wonder he felt so well rested.

He wondered what was happening in his own universe. Hermione and Ron would surely be frantic with looking for him. He had now been gone for a day and a half, it was Monday morning and he would have been due into work. Ron and he were Junior Aurors still, his boss had been making noises about how they would have been made full Auror by now if they would just focus. But in truth Harry’s heart wasn’t quite in it, he wasn’t sure what he was doing it for. And Harry’s distraction tended to distract Ron as well. Harry would rather go out to the pub in the hopes of bumping into Malfoy than sit over case notes or write reports.

Malfoy, who was downstairs in the kitchen by the sound of things.

But they weren’t the same person. They didn’t even look the same, they didn’t stand the same, they didn’t sound the same. Which all things considered was probably for the best. As long as he could keep it firm in his mind that this wasn’t the Malfoy he fantasised about then he ought to be able to live in the same house as him without making a complete fool of himself.

He got up and dressed in the same clothes as yesterday, he’d need to talk to Remus today about borrowing something else to wear, cleaning charms only went so far and he wasn’t that great at them. He didn’t want to be stuck in the same stale underpants until Snape and Hermione figured out how to send him home.

“No, no, no,” he could hear Remus saying through more laughter as he came down the stairs.

He turned into the open kitchen doorway and froze in place.

The sunlight was flooding into the kitchen and Draco was lifting Teddy out of his chair, laughing, his hair in a half knot with the rest loose and flowing down his back. The sun gleamed through it and rimed his profile with a dazzling aurora, his back arched as he lifted Teddy higher, his eyes sparkling with amusement. The sun shone through the thin white t-shirt he was wearing and Harry could see the lines of his slim form perfectly outlined.

Harry flattened himself back against the wall outside the kitchen and muffled a groan. This wasn’t his Malfoy… this was worse. This was so much worse. He was completely and totally fucked.

“Shouldn’t we wake Potter up?” Malfoy said.

“Let him sleep, I can’t imagine how stressful his situation must be. He probably needs the rest,” Remus replied.

“Do you think...” Malfoy paused and Harry heard a tap being turned on. “Do you think Severus will figure out what happened?”

“I honestly don’t know. It’s a very obscure area of magic, and it’s almost entirely theoretical. From what I know anyway. It’s not something I’ve ever really looked into myself.”

“What if he can’t be sent back? What will he do?”

“You mean will he stay here? I’ve told you that he said he was on friendly terms with you in his universe, I was hoping you would be able to see him separately from our Harry.”

“No, it’s not that. I just wondered, that’s all.”

“Hmm. I think for the time being we have to assume he can be sent back, for his own sake if nothing else. He needs us to believe this can be fixed, at least until we know more.

“Right.”

Harry took a deep breath and turned into the kitchen again.

“Morning,” he said, trying to sound like he hadn’t been standing outside the door freaking out for several minutes.

Malfoy was leaning against the counter beside the sink, directing dishes in and out of the water. The sun was still doing horrifically beautiful things to his hair and skin and Harry tried his best to just not look at him at all.

“Unca Hawwy!” shouted Teddy. “You are a sleepy head!”

“Um... yeah,” said Harry.

“There’s bread for toast or sandwiches, but I’m afraid we’re out of eggs,” said Remus. “I’ll get some shopping in this afternoon.”

Harry made himself a jam sandwich and a cup of tea.

“So… um… is there anything I should do while I’m here?” asked Harry. “I had work in my universe, but I presume my other self has that well in hand here. Is he an Auror too?”

“That’s right,” said Remus as proudly as if Harry were his own son. “He joined as soon as he finished his NEWTS. Just got his full Auror status through in November.”

“NEWTS?” said Harry around a mouthful of sandwich.

Malfoy made a face at him talking with his mouth full and Harry’s heart did a little leap at the familiar expression.

“You didn’t do yours?” asked Remus.

“When they offered Ron and I a place in the Auror corps straight after the war I didn’t see any point in going back to school,” said Harry. He mulled over the fact that his other self had still made full Auror even after apparently starting a full year after Harry had. “I’m starting to feel like the disappointment in the family,” he said wryly. “No NEWTS and I’m still a Junior Auror.”

“Well,” said Remus, looking surprised to hear this. “I’m sure you have your reasons, it sounds like a lot more things might be different than I’d realised.”

Harry shrugged.

“Anyway,” said Remus. “I’m sure we can find you something to occupy your time here. But there’s no need to feel you have to do anything, perhaps you could look on it as a bit of a vacation? I‘ll be heading in to the school tomorrow, but Draco will be here with Teddy and I’ll be home at the weekend and most evenings.”

“The school? You mean Hogwarts?”

“Yes, I started back as the Defence teacher a couple of years after the war, when Horace retired again and Severus went back to teaching potions. Minerva agreed to let me stay here with Draco and Teddy rather than live at the school. It’s unusual, but then my circumstances are unusual.”

“So it’ll just be me and Malfoy?” Harry asked out loud almost without meaning to, sounding slightly horrified.

Malfoy frowned.

“Will that be a problem?” Remus asked, his tone dark.

“What?” Harry realised they had misunderstood his trepidation. “No! No. I just didn’t realise. It’s fine. Absolutely fine.” He shut up and shoved his mouth full of bread, as he was dangerously close to babbling.

–

It was strange to be back in the bowels of Hogwarts’ dungeons. Although Hermione had returned to the school a few times over the years since graduating, she had never actually been in Snape’s office before. It reminded her of the Severus Snape she had known during the war, not the one that had gradually revealed himself to her during her time working to keep him out of Azkaban. She had volunteered out of a sense of duty, but by the time Snape was free there had been a genuine, if tentative, friendship created. Harry said she reminded him of Harry’s Mother, who had also been a muggleborn and a Gryffindor, but that he would never admit that. Hermione wasn’t sure if that were the case, she felt rather they had bonded over a mutual appreciation of the merits of hard work and research. And here they were working together again.

“I managed to get some help from Ewans in the Department of Mysteries,” she told him as she shuffled through her notes. “It was easy enough to make him think this was a private project driven purely by intellectual curiosity, it’s not like I don’t already have a reputation for loving research.”

“And was it worth risking him looking into your curiosity?”

“Yes,” said Hermione stubbornly. “It was. He leant me Derida’s workbooks on his multi-universe experiments!” She tried not to smile at the look on his face.

“They let those out of the Department!”

“Well, no. But he let me come in and read through them.”

“And?”

She had him on tenterhooks now, unfortunately she was about to disappoint him. “And the problem is we don’t know what spell was used. None of Derida’s experiments could prove he had actually sent anything inter-dimensionally as he couldn’t get any of the items he sent to come back again. He theorised that in order to send them back you would need to repeat the spell from the location of the object. But he wasn’t willing to travel through himself in order to send himself back again, in case he was wrong.”

“Smart man,” muttered Snape. “Slytherin wasn’t he?”

“Ravenclaw.”

“Certainly not a Gryffindor.”

“Are you implying that Harry might have cast the spell himself?”

Snape sighed. “No, had he done so I would have seen it when I looked inside his mind.”

“I still don’t think you should have done that,” she scolded him.

As usual he ignored her. “But we could attempt to send Potter back using one of the spells Derida used?”

“No we could not! I just told you he had no way to prove that any of them had actually worked. The things he sent through could have gone anywhere… or nowhere at all! We’re not experimenting on Harry!”

Snape looked disappointed. “But the trace of the spell used should still be on Potter. I presume you made a list of the spells Derida tried, we could test Potter for traces of each one.”

“He wouldn’t let me make any notes, but I memorised them and wrote them down afterwards,” said Hermione proudly.

“Of course you did.”

–

Harry’s first day alone in the house with Draco and Teddy started inauspiciously, as he hid in his bedroom until the morning was nearly over, feeling guilty and embarassed about the fact he’d masturbated thinking about Draco in the kitchen before going to sleep and then again after first waking up. When he was finally driven downstairs by his rumbling stomach he was relieved to find the day rather more grey and dingy than yesterday and Draco looking in altogether worse humour.

In fact he was giving Teddy a dressing down in the hallway as Harry came down the stairs.

“I will not have this kind of behaviour just because your Father has gone back to work, Edward. You are four years old, and I know you are capable of controlling yourself.”

“Give over, Malfoy,” said Harry. “You sound like your Dad.”

Malfoy spun around, his face tight and furious. “I’ll thank you to stay out of it, Potter. When your own brat finally pops out perhaps you’ll finally understand the consequences of spoiling children.”

“Ha!” said Harry. “You’re one to talk about being spoiled.”

“Exactly, do you want Teddy to be anything like I was as a child?”

Harry was a bit thrown by that. “Um… well, no.”

Draco steered Teddy out of the hall and into the living room. “My Father was an erratic disciplinarian, which only taught me that I might get away with just about anything or I might get a thrashing and there was no point in worrying about which because there was no way to tell. And my Mother spoiled me rotten behind his back, undermining what few rules he did try to enforce. So I’ll thank you not to undermine my authority in front of Teddy. Remus and I have a system that works very well.”

Harry raised his hands. “Fine, I’ll stay out of it. I only wanted to get something to eat.”

Harry escaped into the kitchen feeling deeply thankful that he wasn’t married and about to become a father. What was the other him thinking? How could they be so different from each other? Not that Harry didn’t want children, but he didn’t feel anywhere near mature enough to have any just yet. Visiting Teddy for a few hours every week was quite enough for him.

In the living room he could hear Teddy reciting his two times table. He wondered just how different this Teddy would turn out, for being raised by Remus and Malfoy instead of Andromeda.

He wandered back through to the living room with his tea and sandwich. Teddy was sitting with quiet concentration at the table by the window with a pencil and parchment.

“So what happens when it’s, you know, that time of the month?” Harry asked.

Draco looked up from peering over Teddy’s shoulder. “He goes to yours or to Aunt Andromeda’s, depending on who’s free. Sometimes Molly takes him, or Bill and Fleur.”

“Molly?” said Harry incredulously.

“Molly Weasley,” said Malfoy, looking confused. “Surely you know...”

“Gamma Molly!” shouted Teddy, distracted by their conversation.

“Do your letters, Teddy,” said Malfoy.

“I knew who you meant,” said Harry. “I just… you called her Molly.”

“Well,” said Malfoy, flushing a bit. “She asked me to.”

“You… you talk to the Weasleys?”

“It was awkward for a while,” said Malfoy, wandering away to avoid looking at Harry, adjusting the cushions on the sofa. He had a tea towel hanging out his back pocket and he reminded Harry oddly of his Aunt Petunia. Constantly fussing over her house. “Fleur took a bit of getting around, but Bill and Molly never held what happened to him against me. Not after… well.”

Malfoy gestured to the scar on his neck and down further, suggesting there may be a lot more scarring that couldn’t be seen. Harry tried not to think about what Malfoy had under his clothing.

“I still don’t exactly get on with the rest, but it’s not like I see much of them. They usually stay away if they know I’m going to be dropping by, and none of them live at the Burrow any more now that Percy’s moved out.”

“What’s it like being a werewolf?” Harry asked, his curiosity getting the better of him. “Do you feel different all the time or just when you… you know, change?”

Malfoy looked at him sharply. “Remus says its different for everyone, though it’s hard for him to remember what it was like before. He says he doesn’t feel the wolf much except in the few days before the full moon.”

“He was young, wasn’t he?” mused Harry.

“Very.”

“It’s strange to think you know him better than I do.”

“It’s strange to think of him being dead. But to answer your question, yes, I do feel different all the time. Remus says its because I… because of how I spent the first months after I was turned. My wolf is closer to the surface.”

Harry thought about asking what had happened, but in the end he only said. “You seem really different.”

Malfoy gave him an inscrutable look before speaking to Teddy. “We’re going through to the kitchen to start lunch. When you finish your letters you can draw in here or you can go outside for a bit. I’ll come fetch you when lunch is ready.”

Teddy nodded in silent concentration, carving deep furrows in the parchment with his pencil.

Harry followed Malfoy back into the kitchen. His sandwich was already devoured and lunch sounded rather appealing.

Malfoy started pulling things out of the cupboards. “What’s he like then, your Malfoy?”

“He’s hardly my Malfoy,” Harry scoffed a bit defensively.

“But you’re friends?”

“Yeah, I guess. We’re friendly at least. He’s… a lot like he was at school, but not as mean. Still pretty full of himself, but I can tell that’s a bit of a front. He’ll be Lord Malfoy after the wedding, and doesn’t he like people to know it.” Harry pictured the Malfoy he was used to. Holding court over a whisky in The Unicorn, his preferred pub. “He hasn’t grown his hair out as much as you have, it’s about to his shoulders and nearly always braided back, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen him not wearing robes or sometimes a fancy suit.”

Malfoy tugged unconsciously at his light denim shirt. “I didn’t see the point in any of that, besides I can’t afford it any more. I’m not a Malfoy now, and I never will be again.”

“Then what are you?” asked Harry.

“Draco,” he said flatly, and began chopping carrots.

There was a laden pause. “What are you making?” Harry asked eventually. “Can I help?”

“I’m going to put on a stew for this evening, I’ll do lunch once it’s on.” He pushed an onion to the side. “You can chop this.”

Soon the two of them were working side by side readying the ingredients.

“Sometimes I like to do it like this,” Draco explained, even though Harry hadn’t asked. “I wasn’t exactly taught kitchen charms at home and Remus is no expert at them either. Molly taught me a few things, but I quite enjoy cooking by hand.”

“I do too,” Harry admitted. “I did a lot of the cooking at home when I was young, and yeah… not exactly well trained in kitchen charms either. Perhaps Hogwarts ought to have a Home Ec class.”

“Home Ec?” asked Draco.

“Home economics, it’s where Muggles learn to cook at school.” Harry found he kept glancing at the scar running down Draco’s neck and disappearing into the shirt to end who knew where.

“Ugly isn’t it?” said Draco at last.

“What? No. Sorry. I didn’t mean to...”

“It’s all right, everyone does it.”

But his voice was tight, and Harry suspected it was not all right at all.

“It’s not ugly,” Harry repeated. “I just… can’t stop thinking about it. What happened. When he… when he killed Dumbledore. I was there when Snape killed him, hidden. But that was the killing curse. It must have been...” Harry realised his hands were shaking and put the paring knife down before he cut himself.

Draco scraped his veg into the big pot and sat down at the table, glancing at the door to make sure Teddy wasn’t listening. “Greyback ripped his throat out,” he said tightly, his eyes dark. “It was messy, but it would have been fast. Not as fast as the killing curse, but fast enough that he wouldn’t feel too much pain.”

Harry felt sick. “It wasn’t what he wanted,” he said numbly. “That’s why he asked Snape to do it, so it would be clean and quick. He always knew you wouldn’t be able to do it and he didn’t want it to be Greyback, he wanted it to be a friend.”

“We don’t always get what we want.”

“No.” Harry sat down at the table. He gestured to Draco’s neck. “Did it hurt… I mean obviously it did, but...”

“It hurt, but not as bad as a Cruciatus, and not as bad as the transformation does.” Draco’s voice was flat as he spoke. Controlled. “It was terrifying though, I didn’t know if he would kill me or not, and I knew that it might be better if he did…” he finally faltered a little. “There was so much blood and I could hear my Mother screaming. They made them watch.”

Harry had to swallow over a lump in his throat at the thought of it, and the memory of his own Mother screaming. “I’m sorry.”

Draco shrugged with an elegant carelessness. “I survived, when plenty of other people didn’t. I have things now I wouldn’t have had if my life had been different. I shouldn’t complain. I’ve got a very different perspective on pain than I did back at school. I used to think a birching from Father was cruel and unusual punishment. It seems rather quaint these days.”

Harry rubbed the back of his hand, despite everything that had happened to him, when he thought of punishment he still thought of Dolores Umbridge. “My Uncle used to hit me too,” Harry said. “With his belt sometimes, when I was young. Not really after I started at Hogwarts, I think he was too afraid of my magic by then. If I have kids I’m never going to hit them.”

“I don’t hit Teddy,” said Draco defensively.

“I never said you did.”

“Being beaten never taught me anything,” Draco continued. “It just made me think it was okay to be cruel.” He stood up. “Can you finish up the stew, I need to get lunch ready.”

“Yeah, sure.”

Harry bit his tongue for a while. As fascinated as he was to learn more about this Draco Malfoy, he sensed that while his defences were lower than the one he knew, they were still very much there and he was nearing his limits.

Draco made up a large bowl of prawn salad. “The seafood up here is particularly good,” he commented as he put it on the kitchen table and flicked his wand to bring out bowls and forks. “I’ll go and find Teddy.”

Apparently week day mornings were for tutoring and afternoons were for exercise and playing, so there was no more time to talk about anything serious between lunch, a long walk through the woods, and various games with Teddy.

When Remus finally arrived back at the cottage for dinner he brought Professor Snape with him.

Draco was clearly pleased to see the man and they disappeared up to the attic to look at a potion Draco had been working on.

“Did he find something?” Harry asked Remus as they set the table for dinner.

“He said he had some tests he wanted to run on you.”

Harry grimaced. “That sounds unpleasant.”

“How was today? Everything go all right?”

Harry shrugged. “Yeah, it was nice.”

“I’m glad. I’ll admit I was a little worried leaving the two of you.”

“It’s not like we could get up to much mischief with Teddy to look after,” Harry commented, suddenly having to fight a blush at the potential double meaning of mischief. He was about to be sat at a dinner table with Snape, he really needed to get a hold of himself, the man missed nothing.

And indeed when they were all sat down at the table, Harry found himself wary of looking anywhere bar Teddy or his own plate in case he was somehow rumbled as to his inappropriate thoughts.

“After dinner I have a list of potential spells to test you for,” said Snape briskly.

“Oh goody,” said Harry, not looking up.

“Miss Granger will appreciate your enthusiasm I’m sure.”

That got Harry to look up. “Hermione found them?”

“And successfully covered for you with your other half. As I have long suspected, without Miss Granger you would be entirely helpless.”

“Since when were you such a fan of Hermione?” Harry asked incredulously.

“Perhaps since she was instrumental in clearing my name. Your babbling testimony was all very well, but without Miss Granger’s organisational abilities I would likely be in Azkaban all the same. Unlike Lucius I couldn’t just pay off the jury.”

Draco snorted. “Last bit of money he ever threw my way.”

“He never bribed the jury in my world,” said Harry. “My word was enough to get you off.”

“I wouldn’t count on that,” said Snape. “They would hardly advertise it, it would somewhat defeat the point.”

Harry frowned. He had been quite proud of getting Draco off the hook, he didn’t like the idea that it had actually been Lucius Malfoy’s galleons all along.

“Less talk about my Father, thank you very much,” said Draco.

“So you think one of these spells was the one cast on me?” asked Harry.

“It is a possibility, I suppose.”

“You suppose?”

“As I told you at the school, inter dimensional travel is nothing more than a theory. The spells Miss Granger has unearthed are entirely unproven.”

“Great,” said Harry grumpily.

Once dinner was over Draco took Teddy upstairs to give him a bath and left the three of them alone in the living room.

“What should I do?” Harry asked, hovering in the middle of the room uncertainly.

“Just sit down, Potter.” said Snape. “And be quiet.”

As Snape glanced over his notes and conferred quietly with Remus, Harry could just hear the sound of Teddy’s laughter up the stairs. He thought about Grimmauld Place, his Grimmauld Place. Dark and unwelcoming even with Hermione and Ron, but then he often felt like a spare wheel around them these days. They were talking about moving out, Harry knew the only reason they hadn’t already was so that he wouldn’t be on his own in that depressing house. Today had been really nice. Remus’ cottage was friendly and bright, Teddy was fun if a bit exhausting, and Draco… Draco was complicated and beautiful and prickly and fascinating.

Harry was surprised out of his musings by a flash of light and a very strange wobbly feeling. He blinked at Snape and Remus.

“Negative,” said Remus.

Snape waved his wand again and Harry’s stomach did what felt like a somersault.

“Negative,” said Remus, crossing a line through something in a notebook.

This proceeded for nearly half an hour, with Harry barely getting a word out between spells. They had a brief pause at one point while he threw up into a wastepaper basket.

“Negative,” said Remus, conjuring him a glass of water.

Finally it was over, by which point Harry was draped limply along the sofa.

“How can they all be negative,” said Remus.

“Quite easily, no one has ever proven inter dimensional travel possible. The chances of the method being one previously attempted were only marginally larger than it being a familiar spell none of us would expect. On top of which, the diagnostic spells are as experimental as the spells they are looking for.”

“So we don’t know anything more than we did before you threw all those spells at me?” groaned Harry.

“Precisely.”

“Sorry, Harry,” said Remus. “But we did have to try.”

“I know,” said Harry. “Tell Hermione I said thanks.”

“You can tell her yourself, I believe she has managed to get a half day off tomorrow to come and check on you herself,” said Snape.

“Will I have stopped feeling like this by then?”

“You should be fine in no more than twenty minutes, Potter. The dramatics are as usual unnecessary.”

Remus exchanged a wry look with Harry before drawing Snape out of the room to discuss something.

Harry lay on the sofa wondering, seriously this time, what would happen if he couldn’t get back. Would they eventually have to admit the truth to everyone or would he have to hide from his friends forever? He decided he wouldn’t hide, if he was still here by the end of this school year, he would demand that they come clean so he could at least get on with his life. Though, would Remus and Draco even put up with him taking up Teddy’s bedroom for that long.

Remus poked his head back into the room. “How are you feeling, Harry? Any better?”

“Yeah, I guess so,” said Harry, sitting up and finding he did actually feel quite a bit better.

“Excellent. I have to head back to the school once Teddy’s down. I’m patrolling tonight. So I’ll see you tomorrow evening.”

“Oh, right...” Was all Harry had time for before Remus had disappeared again.

By the time he pried himself off the sofa Teddy was asleep and Remus and Snape were long gone. He found Draco in the kitchen making himself a cup of tea. Harry was duly impressed and mildly concerned that twelve cups of tea in one day couldn’t be entirely healthy even with a werewolf’s constitution.

“Does Remus have to patrol a lot?” Harry asked, to make conversation.

Draco snorted. “Is that what he told you.”

“What?”

Draco shook his head in amusement, but didn’t explain.

“It’s not cause of me is it? I told him I could sleep on the sofa so Teddy can have his bed back. Or...”

Draco laughed sharply. “Stop worrying. Remus doesn’t have to patrol, it’s part of his arrangement with the Headmistress. And he’s not there because of you. He stays at Hogwarts a couple of nights a week during term time cause he and Snape are shagging.”

Harry’s jaw dropped so far he nearly dislocated it. “Wha… they? What?!”

Draco smirked.

“But Snape hates Remus!”

Draco shrugged one of his many complex shrugs. “Maybe in your world he does. Remus claims it’s just sex. So does Severus for that matter. I don’t believe it myself, not after all this time. Plus I’m fairly sure Severus went back to teaching Potions mostly so that Remus could come work at the school again and they could see each other more often.”

Harry just gaped further.

“Oh come on,” said Draco, sounding a bit irritated. “Is it really that big a deal?”

“Remus was married… to a woman...” stuttered Harry.

“You have heard of bisexuality, haven’t you?”

“I need a cup of tea,” said Harry, sitting down at the table.

“Should have known you’d be weird about it,” Draco sniffed, looking personally insulted even as he made Harry a cup of tea.

“I’m not being weird, I’m being surprised. Last thing I knew Remus was a happily married heterosexual man, and Snape was… well he liked women, I thought.”

“There was a woman he loved once,” Draco said thoughtfully. “He never would tell me who it was, just that she liked someone else. He told me that was the only woman he ever felt that way about, other than that he’d always preferred men. I thought it was strange, but then he’s a strange man. Secretive. So don’t tell him I mentioned anything.”

Draco put a cup of tea in front of Harry and he wrapped his hands around it as he kept his mouth shut about the fact he knew the identity of Snape’s mystery woman. He tried to fit the new information into his head. The last time he had seen Snape and Remus in the same room in his own world, Snape had barely been willing to make eye contact with the other man. The idea that they were… intimate… it just didn’t bear thinking about. It was just disturbing. I mean it was Snape. But then this was a different universe, maybe they weren’t the same people he had known at all, but just looked like them. But then that was half the problem Harry was having, Snape looked like Snape… and he just couldn’t…

“Stop making that face,” snapped Draco. “Remus is your friend, the least you could do is pretend not to find it disgusting. I thought you were better than that.”

“He is my friend, but that doesn’t mean I want to think about him and Snape shagging! It’s gross.”

Draco’s face tightened so much his lips went white. He slammed his mug down on the counter so hard Harry heard something crack, and walked out of the room.

Harry got up and ran after him. “Hey! Wait up!”

Draco turned round and hissed at him, “Be quiet, you’ll wake up Teddy.”

“What are you so mad about?” Harry whispered back. “Sorry if I don’t want to think about Snape naked, but I don’t understand why you’re so angry.”

“You never bloody do,” said Draco. “You’re so fucking oblivious.”

If Malfoy was swearing, he must be genuinely furious. Though Harry couldn’t think why. “How am I supposed to if you won’t tell me what you’re angry about?”

“I have work to do upstairs,” was all Draco would say before he stalked off up the stairs somehow making no noise at all.

Harry sighed, he was starting to feel a bit off colour again, and he certainly wasn’t up to dealing with this right now. He went back into the kitchen to finish his tea before bed.


	4. Taking What You Want

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As of this chapter I have upped the rating to explicit, please check the tags.

Despite his early night, when Teddy woke him up by jumping on his stomach Harry felt he could definitely have done with considerably more sleep.

“Dwaco said you were making me brekfast Unca Harry,” said Teddy.

“What time is it?” muttered Harry, moving Teddy off of him. He was heavy and seemed to be all elbows.

“Want eggy bread!”

“Um, sure.” Harry rubbed his eyes and felt for his glasses. When he put his watch on he discovered it was half past six in the morning. “Bastard,” he muttered in Draco’s direction, certain he had sent Teddy through this early on purpose because he was still inexplicably angry with him.

“That’s a bad word, Unca Harry,” Teddy told him.

“Yes, sorry.”

It was pitch black outside still and Harry put coffee on first. He usually only drank coffee when he was working, but needs must. He made a pile of french toast and bacon, but when he sat down to join Teddy at the table he only picked at his own food. He still felt groggy despite the coffee, and his stomach felt unsettled. It was just too damn early.

Draco didn’t show his face until it was gone nine.

“Sorry,” he said, not sounding the least bit sorry. “I was up late working.”

“It’s fine,” said Harry, not sounding the least bit as if it were fine. The low sun shining in the kitchen window had given him a headache and Draco looked far too well rested.

“Lunch time!” Teddy cried hopefully.

“No, it’s mathematics time,” said Draco.

Teddy pouted.

“Well,” said Harry. “I’ll leave you to it.”

He felt a bit dizzy as he stood up, but he ignored it and made for the stairs, grabbing the bannister to haul himself back up to his bed. But his eyes refused to clear from the grey speckles dancing in front of them, and before he had a chance to realise he ought to stop his foot had slipped on the edge of the stair he was stepping on and he was falling. His shoulder wrenched as his weight all ended up on the one arm still clinging on to the bannister and he cried out and let go, sliding ignominiously the rest of the way down the stairs on his side.

He ended up in a pile at the foot of the stairs, clutching his shoulder, as Teddy came running out to see what had happened. “Uncle Harry fell down the stairs,” he said solemnly as Draco came into the hall. “Are you dead, Unca Harry?”

“No,” Harry groaned.

“Uncle Harry will be fine,” said Draco. “Go and fetch your exercise book and wait for me at the table.”

“Kiss it better,” said Teddy.

“That won’t be necessary,” said Draco, pushing Teddy back into the living room. He stood over Harry. “Even Teddy can get up the stairs without falling over, Potter,” he said.

“I hate you,” said Harry.

“Are you actually hurt or are you just waiting for me to pick you up?”

“I’m actually hurt,” retorted Harry. “I’ve fucked my bastard shoulder.”

“Language, Potter,” said Draco at the same time as Teddy sang out from the living room. “Bad words, Unca Harry!”

“Let me see, then,” said Draco.

He bent down and moved Harry’s good arm away from the damaged one. But even a slight effort to move his shoulder caused Harry to holler in pain and punch Draco away from him with his good arm.

“Ow,” said Draco rubbing his chest.

“That hurt,” protested Harry.

“I gathered.”

“I think it’s dislocated again,” he said through gritted teeth. “I dislocated it last year on a mission and they said once you’ve done it once it’s more likely to happen again. Feels kind of the same. Absolute fu-fecking agony.”

“How did they fix it?”

“I don’t know, it hurt and they did something and then it hurt less, and then they gave me some potions and a couple of days off.”

“Oh, well I’ll just do that then,” said Draco sarcastically.

“You must at least have a pain killing potion somewhere,” begged Harry.

Draco rolled his eyes and stepped over Harry’s legs to climb up the stairs. He came back down with a hand labelled bottle and went into the kitchen to fetch a glass.

Harry gulped down the proferred potion enthusiastically and moaned with pleasure as the pain gradually seeped away.

“Do I need to take you to St Mungo’s or can you wait for Granger to get here?” Draco asked.

“How long will the potion last?” asked Harry.

“It should hold you for about three hours, I think Granger is coming about lunchtime.”

“I can wait, if you’ll at least help me get upstairs.”

“Fine,” said Draco, and held out a hand to pull Harry off the floor.

Harry needed more help than he felt he ought to, given it was his shoulder not his legs that were damaged. But his knees were wobbly with shock, and standing up brought back the dancing greyness that had made him slip in the first place. With his good arm slung over Draco’s shoulders and Draco’s arm firmly around his waist they made it to the bedroom and Harry collapsed onto the bed.

“Shitting hell, I feel bloody awful,” Harry moaned into the covers, grateful to be horizontal again.

This time Draco didn’t school him on his language. Instead he rolled Harry over relatively carefully. “Your face is sort of grey,” he said. “That can’t be good. Maybe I should firecall Madame Pomfrey, she always seemed to like you.”

“No,” said Harry automatically. “I’ll be okay. I just need to lie here for a bit. When Hermione gets here I bet she’ll know the spell to fix it.”

Draco looked unconvinced. “Well, it’s your shoulder. I better get back down to Teddy. I’ll check on you in half an hour.”

Harry didn’t know if Draco had checked on him or not, as he fell asleep shortly after he went downstairs and didn’t wake up again until about midday when his shoulder started to ache again.

He got out of bed and sat on his arse to bump down the stairs one at a time, hissing at the jolt of pain from his shoulder on each step. When he got to the bottom he just sat there for a bit, wondering what the hell was wrong with him. It had hurt a lot, last time he’d dislocated his shouder, but he hadn’t felt this weak and out of it afterwards. He was genuinely nervous that if he stood up he might fall down again.

“Eh… Draco?” he called.

Draco came out of the living room. “Please tell me you haven’t done it again.”

“No, just, could you help me stand up? I still feel a bit funny.”

Draco sighed and held out his hand for Harry to take, then pulled him up. “If I’d known I’d be looking after two children, I might not have been so quick to agree to you staying here.” He dropped Harry onto the sofa in the living room and went off into the kitchen.

“Hem-rinee is coming for lunch,” Teddy told him. “Are you still hurted?”

“I’ll be all right,” said Harry. “Hermione will make me all better.”

“When I fell outta the window I had to go to St Mungo’s,” said Teddy with wide eyes.

Draco came back in with his solution to all things, a mug of tea, this time with extra sugar.

“He fell out a window?” asked Harry, taking the mug.

“Over a year ago now. Accidental magic,” said Draco, with a slight twitch of his shoulders. “He wanted to go out to play and we said no, he was leaning against his bedroom window when he vanished the glass and fell out of it head first. He broke his arm and gave himself a concussion. I nearly died of fright. Thank Merlin the ground was muddy.”

“Shoudn’t his magic have stopped him hitting the ground?”

“Doesn’t always work that way. I’m not sure he realised how much danger he was in, he was at that age when he’d happily try and throw himself off things with no idea that he might get seriously hurt if we didn’t always catch him. Besides, kids can usually only manage one burst of accidental magic at a time, without the focus of a wand it uses up a lot of power.”

“I’m gettin’ a wand when I go Hogwarts,” Teddy told Harry. He turned to Draco. “How many years?”

“Still seven years to go, Teddy.”

“When I’m eleven.”

“That’s right.”

Teddy toddled after Draco as he went, clearly more interested in further discussion of Hogwarts than in his Uncle Harry.

Hermione arrived just as Draco was setting out lunch.

“Granger,” he heard Draco say formally.

“Hi, Draco. Hello, Teddy. Where’s Harry?”

“He’s in the living room.”

Hermione bustled in and hurried over, all smiles.

“Don’t hug me!” Harry cried quickly, holding up his good arm before she could jar his shoulder. “I dislocated my shoulder again. Please tell me you know how to fix it.”

Halted in the centre of the room, Hermione frowned. “How did you do that?” She glanced at the door. “You two haven’t been fighting have you?”

“I fell down the stairs, I swear. Malfoy and I have been fine.”

“You fell down the stairs?” Hermione came over and sat carefully on the edge of the sofa. “Are you sure it’s dislocated?”

“Yeah, I dislocated it at work last year and it felt the same.”

“All right then, I ought to be able to fix it, but it’ll hurt.” Hermione pointed her wand at this shoulder. “Episkey.”

Harry’s shoulder ground itself back into place to the sound of his very loud shriek.

Teddy and Draco appeared in the doorway as if summoned.

“You scream like a girl, Potter,” said Draco, as Hermione transfigured Harry’s sleeve into a sling.

Teddy watched with wide eyes.

“I’m okay, Teddy,” said Harry. “It’s better now.”

“There are potions you really ought to take to help the muscles heal and the swelling go down,” said Hermione. “How on earth did you end up falling down the stairs anyway? It’s not like you to be clumsy.”

“I got dizzy,” explained Harry. “I don’t know, maybe I’m coming down with something. I’ve been feeling off all morning.”

“I’ve got numbing potion in the kitchen that he can take,” said Draco. “And lunch is ready.”

Harry found himself staggering again as he and Hermione stood up to go into the kitchen.

“Harry?”

He leaned against the arm of the sofa. “Sorry, just dizzy again.” He didn’t see how worried she looked, as he had his eyes closed.

–

“Hermione,” said Ginny with a smile. “We weren’t expecting you.”

“I’m surprised you’re on door answering duty, I’d have thought you’d want to be off your feet,” said Hermione.

“Kreacher’s upstairs running Harry a bath, at his age he doesn’t always hear the door any more.”

Hermione tried to school her features as a frown attempted to break out. She knew Kreacher loved looking after Grimmauld Place for Harry and Ginny, but it still bothered her that despite his advanced age and increasing frailty he felt he couldn’t retire. House elves didn’t retire, they worked until they died. It was horrible. But she had forced herself to accept that it truly was what he wanted and just hope that she could affect some sort of gradual change rather than the immediate cessation of house elf slavery she had envisioned when she was twelve.

“And has Harry gone deaf too?” she asked, sticking to the subject of her visit.

Ginny frowned herself. “He hurt his back at work this morning, fell off a broom of all things. Ron brought him home, of course he thought it was hilarious. But I think he must be coming down with something, he said he wasn’t feeling right at breakfast.”

Hermione’s hands clenched and she felt her heart thump unpleasantly. This was exactly why she had stopped by on her way home from the cottage. And she had a very bad feeling about it.

–

When Remus arrived back after school he brought the potions for Harry’s shoulder with him that Draco had requested by owl. Draco could have made some of them himself, but that would have meant leaving Teddy with Harry all afternoon and Harry was not exactly up to dealing with a rambunctuous four year old at the moment. Besides he had better things to do than waste precious potions ingredients on Potter’s inability to walk down stairs without creating a scene.

Harry took them without complaint, which in itself seemed suspicious.

“Granger left much earlier than I was expecting,” Draco confided to Remus once they were out of Harry’s earshot. “She seemed worried about something.”

“It is unlike Harry to be so clumsy,” replied Remus. “I admit to being concerned myself, especially with the timing.”

“He’s not this world’s Harry,” said Draco. “Maybe he’s just clumsier, might explain why he’s not made full Auror yet. And he said he’d done it before.” But in truth, he was making excuses. He wanted everything to be fine. He wanted not to have to worry. Not to think… no, he wasn’t thinking about it. It was ridiculous. But what if...

“I suppose it’s possible,” said Remus. “Severus didn’t seem to think much of it. Still, we should keep an eye on him.”

“You mean I should,” grumbled Draco. Teddy had been especially distracted today after Harry’s fall, and keeping him from bothering Harry had been particularly trying.

“I’m sorry, Draco. I understand this isn’t what you signed up for and I didn’t exactly ask your permission before agreeing to let Harry stay with us.”

Draco shrugged, trying to push his irritation to the background. “I would have said yes.”

“Still, I should have asked.”

“I’m just glad you’re not blaming me for pushing him down the stairs, it was Granger’s first suspicion.”

“She doesn’t know you as well as I do.”

“When we were sixteen I’d have happily done it,” Draco noted.

“And so would he, you’re not children any more. Thank goodness.”

Draco gave a lopsided smile, putting his concerns away. “I was thinking of doing a roast tomorrow.”

“That lamb joint?”

Draco nodded.

“Brilliant. I’ll pick up some fresh mint from the greenhouses before I come home.” Remus paused thoughtfully, sitting down at the kitchen table. “I’ve been thinking, perhaps after Christmas we might arrange for Teddy to start some more formal schooling with some other children his age.”

Draco frowned. “I was tutored at home right up until I went to Hogwarts. It’s a perfectly acceptable way to do things.”

Remus smiled. “I know you’re perfectly capable of teaching Teddy, but if it weren’t for his morphing you know I’d have been sending him to the local Muggle nursery school this year. And before your circumstances changed I hardly think your life plan was to be a stay at home parent.”

Draco flushed. “I wouldn’t have see the appeal back then… but I don’t mind so very much.”

“Nevertheless, it would be good for both of you I think, to have more room to grow. Teddy needs to spend time with other children before he goes to Hogwarts, and I would like you to be able to spend more time on the things you want to do.”

Draco looked troubled. “I want to be where I’m needed,” he admitted. “Teddy...”

“Needed you. But he’s growing up, Draco. He’ll always need you, you’ve been his second parent in ways I couldn’t have imagined when I agreed to take you in. But it’s time for him to get out into the world, maybe past time. I’ve felt safer keeping him at home, but I think maybe I’ve done both of you a disservice.”

“What’s brought all this on?”

“I suppose, with Harry here, I’ve been thinking about how unusual our circumstances are. Wondering what Teddy’s life would have been like if Dora had lived, or if we’d both died – as we did in Harry’s reality. I think I’ve done a good job, we’ve done a good job. But we have been very insular in some ways. We’ve had our reasons - some good and some more selfish. We both grew up quite lonely in different ways. I’m worried we’re repeating that with Teddy for the wrong reasons.”

“Because I’d rather not deal with the outside world.”

“Because we both would rather not, I’m not blaming you. The final decisions have been mine.”

“I’m not sure I’d know what to do with myself without Teddy here,” Draco admitted.

“Well you won’t know until it happens, will you. And it’s not like it will be all at once. Maybe a couple of mornings a week to start off with. It will be a big change for him.”

“I suppose,” said Draco. “Do you know where you’ll enrol him?”

“There’s a nursery group in Edinburgh, they cover three to six year olds. I’ll send them an Owl and see if they have room for him.”

They were disturbed by a tapping on the window, an owl was trying to get in. Draco opened it and Hermione’s owl, Paulina, flew in carrying a letter addressed to Remus. Draco hovered, not quite close enough to read it himself.

Remus frowned as he read the relatively short note. “You were right that Hermione was worried,” he said finally. “She went to visit our Harry and says that he’s not well either. She thinks there must be a connection and wants us to keep a close eye on him and tell her immediately if he gets any worse or if anything unusual happens.” Remus glanced at the ceiling as if he could see through to the bedroom Harry was lying in.

“You think we shouldn’t leave him alone?” asked Draco, snagging the letter out of Remus’ loose grasp to read it himself.

“I’m going to try and get him out of bed to have dinner with us,” decided Remus. “If the shoulder is the only problem, he ought to be well enough for that after the potions he took. We’ll see how that goes.”

“The stew is ready, it’s just staying warm in the oven,” Draco said. “I’ll do some potatoes and we’ll be all done in about half an hour.”

“All right… I’ll just stick my head in to Harry and let him know.” Remus left the room, but by the sound of it didn’t make it further than the living room. “Oh, Teddy!” Draco heard. He shook his head and continued with what he was doing, whatever Teddy had done… Remus reappeared in the doorway. “You’ll want to see this,” he said with that fondly irate expression he had when Teddy did something very naughty and deeply adorable all at once.

Draco followed him into the living room and pulled the straightest face he could manage.

Teddy was stood in the middle of the room looking uncertain. He held out a card that was mostly an unrecognisable blur of crayon and glitter, but very definitely said “GET WELLL UNCELHARRY” near the top. Unfortunately the crayon and glitter also covered a variety of other surfaces in the room, including some of the ceiling, which was fairly inexplicable. Draco frowned up at it.

“Why don’t you explain to Draco why there is crayon and glitter on the ceiling, Teddy,” said Remus.

Teddy looked slightly guilty. “Threwed it,” he muttered.

“You threw it?” said Draco, looking back down at Teddy. “Why would you do that?”

“Dunno.” Teddy marshalled a bit. “Give card to Uncle Harry?” he asked hopefully.

“I will give the card to Harry,” said Remus. “You will go to the naughty corner.” Teddy started to screw up his face.

“No, Teddy,” said Draco firmly. “Tell me why you’re going to the naughty corner.”

“C-c-c-cause I made a mess,” gulped Teddy.

“That is correct,” said Remus, retrieving the card before Teddy crumpled it. “Now on you go.”

Teddy sniffled his way into the hall where his official naughty corner was. Draco cast a quick Tempus Notificare for four minutes and left Remus to deal with the mess as he got back to his potatoes.

When the alarm beeped in his ear Draco left the simmering pot to retrieve a quietly sulking Teddy from his corner. The sulking was a distinct improval on last year, when Teddy had screamed his way through any naughty corner time like a heart broken banshee. Molly had assured them that it would pass, and she had been right.

“What do you say?” he asked Teddy.

“’M sorry,” Teddy muttered.

“And what are you sorry for?”

“Makin’ a mess.”

“And why don’t we make a mess?”

“B’cause you and Daddy has to clear it up an’ it’s not fair.”

“That’s right. Now, come on and sit at the table while I finish dinner.” Teddy climbed into a chair as Draco started to put together a bowl of salad. “What shall we put in the salad?” he asked.

“Grapes!” said Teddy.

Draco snagged a bunch of grapes from the fruit bowl and began slicing them in half. “What else?”

“Sausages!”

“Hmm...” said Draco. “Maybe I’ll take that under advisement.”

Remus came through shaking his head. “How is it that glitter is somehow immune to all magic?”

Draco smirked. “It’s in your hair.”

“I am not surprised.” He looked at Teddy who was also randomly spattered in glitter. “I’ll take him up and try and clean him.”

“Good luck. Is Harry coming down?”

“He says yes. He seemed better, I think he was only still up there because he didn’t want to bother us.”

Harry made an appearance only a few minutes later, smelling of their lavendar hand soap and the sweat of afternoon naps and of sharp wild honey and faintly of the potions he had taken earlier. Draco heaved a silent sigh of relief. “You smell better,” he said, without thinking.

Harry looked confused.

“Sorry, I mean… well I meant what I said. You smell more the way you did yesterday. It’s a werewolf thing.”

“What do I smell like?” Harry asked curiously.

“When you’re in pain you smell of sour vinegar,” Draco replied.

“And I don’t smell like that anymore?”

Draco stayed facing away to avoid showing his flushed cheeks, he was absolutely not describing how Harry smelled in front of Remus who would know exactly what the honey smell was. “No.”

“Good to know.” Harry sighed. “This is all driving me a bit nuts,” he admitted. “I feel completely out of control.”

“Nuts,” said Teddy. “Want nuts.”

“Pine nuts?” suggested Draco.

“Wall nuts!” said Teddy.

Draco Accio’d a bag of walnuts from the larder and sprinkled some into the salad.

Harry made a face and Draco arched an eyebrow in response, at which Harry stuck out his tongue and Draco had to turn away again to hide his laughter. As different as Harry seemed to find him from his other self, he found this new Harry equally unusual. The other Harry always frowned and smelled of pepper and ozone whenever he saw him. The honey smell grew stronger and Draco had to stop himself from turning back around. He had scented honey yesterday as well, but had purposefully ignored it. It couldn’t mean what it usually meant, maybe this Harry just always smelled like that.

\--

It was late at night and Remus had long since gone to bed. Draco was in his potions lab in the attic, mostly faffing about if truth be told. His concentration wasn’t on point this evening. He heard a light knock on the door and put aside the mortar and pestle he had been using to grind down some myrhh resin. “Come in.” It was Harry.

“Sorry to bother you,” he said, lurking in the door way.

“Come in properly, it’s fine, I wasn’t really doing anything.”

“Right.” Harry came in and shut the door, mooching around the shelves. “I slept too much today and now I’m not tired.”

“Your shoulder isn’t bothering you again is it?”

“No, it’s fine. I’m sorry about today, I know I was a pain in the arse.”

Draco shrugged. “Unless you threw yourself down the stairs on purpose I suppose it couldn’t be helped.”

“I hate needing looked after,” said Harry. “So definitely not.”

He wandered along the shelves, looking at Draco’s ingredients. His presence made Draco nervous. He rarely had anyone else bar Severus up in his potions laboratory, least of all Potter. Remus stayed away, claiming he was so bad at potions he could cause a cauldron to explode through proximity alone.

“I always thought Slytherins liked potions just cause Snape made it so easy for them,” Harry commented.

“I neither liked nor disliked potions at school,” Draco told him. “But I wanted to learn to make Wolfsbane, and it was something I could do at home that could bring some more money in.”

“I could help out, if you like,” Harry suggested. “I know it costs money to keep me.”

“I don’t need any help,” Draco said, a little too sharply.

Harry frowned. “Are you still angry with me about last night?”

Draco’s mouth set in a tight, thin line. The list of things about Potter that made him snappish was long, and not all negative, but his homophobia was definitely on the list.

“If you think I don’t approve of Remus sleeping with Snape then you misunderstood me. Remus can sleep with whomever he wants. I was just surprised.”

“You said it was gross, that’s a little more than surprise,” shot back Draco, his eyes narrowed.

“I just can’t imagine someone fancying Snape,” said Harry. “He’s so… look I’m not trying to be offensive, and I should have just kept my mouth shut, I know you and Snape are friends. But he’s not exactly, you know… traditionally handsome… or nice… or even polite… at least not to me.”

“So if it had been someone else… not Severus, but another man, you wouldn’t have freaked out?” Draco asked cautiously.

“I’d still have been a little surprised, I hadn’t realised Remus was bisexual. But I wouldn’t have over reacted like that, I don’t have a problem with two men being together if that’s what you’re asking.” Harry fidgeted. “Actually… um… I never really told anyone this before… but I’m pretty sure I’m gay.” His face flushed red and he looked anywhere but in Draco’s direction.

“Oh!” said Draco, momentarily stunned. “Oh, I… um… I suppose that explains why you didn’t marry Ginny Weasley.”

“I suppose it does,” said Harry with forced lightness. “And I suppose the other me must be straight, or at least bisexual, and that’s why he did.”

There was an awkward pause.

Draco couldn’t help himself though, he suddenly had to know. “Was there someone else in your world then, a man I mean?”

“No… not really.”

“But there must have been someone you liked?”

Potter was blushing a lot, and it tinted his scent with warmth. “Maybe… but they didn’t feel the same way.”

“Oh,” said Draco again, wondering who it was who had turned down Harry Potter. He liked to think he would have, if this world’s Potter had ever offered, but he knew in his gut he wouldn’t. Potter’s constant distrust and dislike of him wouldn’t niggle so much if he hadn’t always hoped for something more from him. And this new Potter’s more accepting mien had set off little tremors of desire that he had hoped were long ago quashed. And to find out he was gay too…

Potter was glancing at him through his eyelashes, his head ducked and his fingers fidgeting. Draco realised they had been silent for an excessively long time. “When did you realise?” he asked, for the sake of something to say.

“I dunno,” said Harry. “Sometime during the last year of the war, or maybe not until after, when I realised I didn’t want to get back with Ginny. I had a lot of other stuff on my mind.”

“I knew for sure by fourth year,” said Draco, surprised it could take someone that long to realise. “After Parkinson tried to shove her tongue down my throat at the Yule Ball.”

“Knew...” Harry trailed off and stared at him in shock. “You mean you’re...”

“A gay werewolf Death Eater,” completed Draco. “You would almost think I was trying to be ostracised from decent society.”

Harry gaped at him.

“I wonder if I’m gay in your world too,” Draco said thoughtfully.

“You can’t be, you’re getting married. To a woman.”

“Which I would almost certainly be doing in this world, were I not a werewolf. Purebloods produce heirs, Potter. Legitimate ones. On pain of disinheritance.”

Harry frowned. “I just assumed.”

“You have always been prone to that.” Potter seemed quite thrown by the idea that his Draco might not be straight either. Draco moved closer to him, cautiously. “I’m sure I’m perfectly all right with it, if I am,” he said. “It’s not as unusual as people like to pretend it is, and I would probably take a lover. It’s just how it’s done.”

Potter looked up, and seemed startled to find Draco so much closer. “A lover?” he breathed.

Draco found his wide, green eyes distracting, and his chest tightened suddenly with a nervous exhilaration. “Yes.” He found his eyes drawn to Potter’s mouth. His lower lip was slightly ragged where it seemed to have been chewed on, and Draco had a growing urge to feel its texture against his own mouth. He licked his lips and saw Potter’s gaze follow his tongue. The scent of honey was surging strongly through the potions scents that had masked it and Draco’s mouth began to water. He reached out an only slightly shaky hand and placed it on Harry’s jaw. Harry didn’t pull away from him, and that was enough reassurance for Draco to take a final step closer and lower his lips to Harry’s.

The kiss was awkward, Harry didn’t seem to know what to do with his mouth, his lips were slack and Draco had to angle his head for him to fit them together more comfortably. When he drew back and opened his own eyes, Harry’s were still wild and startled. But when Draco went to move away, thinking he had made a mistake, Harry’s hand came up to hold his in place and the other went to the back of Draco’s head to encourage him forward again. This time Harry kissed him back, his mouth opening and his tongue flickering inexpertly over Draco’s lips. Draco grabbed Harry’s face in both hands and deepened the kiss, pushing his tongue into the other man’s mouth.

Potter went pleasingly loose under him, submissive in a way that made his wolf surge forward. Not that it was ever that far from the surface. Before he even knew he was doing it he had Potter pressed hard against the workbench, his hips pressed into him, he reached one arm down and hooked it under Potter’s thigh, encouraging him up so that he could press his fast swelling erection into Potter’s groin. Merlin, it had been so long since he’d ground himself into a warm body and Potter smelled good enough to eat.

“I don’t… I’m not...” Potter gasped. But he shut up with a helpless groan when Draco bit his neck and sucked the skin hard into his mouth.

With both hands Draco shoved him up onto the bench and Banished his trousers and underwear to who cared where. It was barely a week until the full moon, and Potter’s ridiculous scent had been niggling at his control since he had arrived. Who the hell smelled of arousal all the time, it was enough to tempt a saint. And he was no saint. He wanted to taste him, in truth he wanted to bite him hard enough to draw blood, feel it fill his mouth, but even as far gone as he was right now he had more self control than that. He could settle for a different fluid.

Potter moaned like the virgin he most likely was when Draco swallowed his cock. His hands patted awkwardly at Draco’s head and he pinned them down to the table firmly. Potter tasted as good as he smelled. As prissy as he had been as a boy, his wolf liked to smell sweat and arousal, liked the way men smelled at the end of the day when their bodies had had time to recover from their morning shower. Draco pulled back and ducked his head lower to suck Potter’s balls into his mouth, savouring the salty, musky taste of them, the soft skin against the coarse sparse hair.   
Potter’s breath was already heaving with arousal. He wouldn’t last long. Draco pushed his hips up and lapped at his perineum, licked lower over his entrance and the earthy musty tastes there.

He had meant to suck him off, hard and fast, but the sounds Potter was making, his submission to Draco’s need, the way he tasted, he wanted more than to jerk himself off with the taste of Potter’s come in his mouth. He wanted to have him, to take him, to come inside him. He brought his mouth back to Potter’s cock after muttering a quick lubrication charm, and replaced his tongue with his fingers. Swallowing Potter’s cock into the back of his throat, he pushed two fingers inside him, just inside at first, feeling Potter’s surprise in the pulsing of his entrance. Draco growled around his cock and worked his fingers until Potter could take them all the way.

“Malfoy,” he gasped. “Draco...”

Draco only sucked him deeper and twisted his fingers, making him gasp and moan. He needed to get another finger in there before he could let himself go, but he already felt like he might expire if he couldn’t bury himself inside Potter soon. The wolf was struggling to get out further as it was, needing satisfaction. He pulled off Potter’s cock, his mouth and chin wet with saliva, so he could get more air, the saliva running down between Potter’s legs added to the lubricant as he pulled back and added the third finger.

“Draco… please… oh...” Harry panted.

“You can do it, push against me,” Draco growled. “You can take it.” And he could, his fingers slid in to the middle knuckle and Draco ran them around Potter’s rim, making him whimper. “That’s it.” Draco lapped at the head of his cock, sucking on it, tasting the pre-cum oozing out of it. When he was sure Potter was feeling more pleasure than discomfort from his three fingers, he stood up and undid his flies with his free hand, shoving his clothes down his thighs and out of the way. “It’ll burn at first, like my fingers did,” he whispered as he pulled them out to make way for his eager cock. “Just bear down and relax and I promise it’ll feel so good once you’re used to it.” He whispered another lubrication charm and felt it coat his cock.

Harry whimpered, his wide green eyes watching Draco’s face, his hands pushing into the wood of the bench. Draco lifted his legs right up and settled them on his shoulders.

“I wish I could keep sucking you,” Draco said even as he pressed his cock against Harry’s slick entrance. “You taste so good.” He pressed forward and Harry’s eyes widened even more, Draco ran a hand through the sweat on his stomach, pushing his shirt up. “Relax.” Draco closed his eyes to concentrate on the feel of Potter’s tight entrance giving way to his determined slow push. Oh yes, this was what he needed. Another few days closer to the moon and he’d have howled at the feeling of invading Potter’s hot, tight, virginal arse. As it was he made soft yelping, crooning noises as he pulled back a little and thrust deeper. Sharp out, deeper in, out, deeper in, and in and fuck yes, there he was. He folded over Potter, gasping with one last moment of control and then his eyes snapped open and he let go and thrust hard.

With one hand pressed into Potter’s chest, and the other holding firmly to his hip, Draco pounded into his body. His hard thrusts pushing Harry away up the bench until he grabbed him up in both arms and pulled him back down onto his cock. Harry gasped as Draco all but lifted him off the bench and into him, his legs dropping off his shoulders to catch on his biceps. Harry dropped his hands back to hold himself up at this new angle, Draco’s arm tight around his back, the other holding one of his legs. Draco revelled in his strength, so rare he had the opportunity to show it off. And the wolf liked showing it off. Oh, and the wolf liked this. Liked this very much.

“Mine,” Draco gasped, thrusting faster, teetering on the edge of losing control. “Mine. Fuck, I want to bite you, want to taste you.” He pushed Potter over onto his back again, climbing onto the bench after him in a move only someone with a werewolves strength could have accomplished without stopping. He had Potter folded under him now and he took a hold of his cock as he pounded into him. It was so good. He still wanted to taste him though, to feel Potter come and lick it off him. He worked Potter’s cock fast, urging him to come. “Come on, come on Harry. Come with me.”

Potter’s eyes were wild, his hair plastered to his forehead with sweat. Draco curled forward and licked his face, tasting his sweat, it tasted of arousal and fear. Draco suspected his teeth had lengthened and sharpened, but Potter didn’t have to be afraid. “I won’t bite you,” he panted. “It’s okay. You’re okay.” It was hard to be reassuring when he wanted to snarl and howl. He was so close. Potter must be close too, he was rigid and hot in Draco’s hand. Draco matched their paces, twisting his hand over the head of Harry’s cock. “Come, yes, come,” he chanted. And Harry did, clamping down on Draco’s cock like a vice. And Draco did howl as Harry’s come splattered onto their chests and faces and Draco let go and came inside him, forcing it past the tight ring of muscle that held his cock inside Harry. It seemed to take forever before his muscles collapsed from their rigidity and he fell over Potter, boneless and sated and soaked in sweat. He lazily pushed his tongue out to lap at the come on his chin and his hand, salt and sharp wild honey everywhere.

He eventually noticed Potter pushing weakly at him and flailed out his hand to shove enough stuff out of the way that he could roll off onto the bench next to him. He wanted to sleep.


	5. Aftershocks

Harry sat up gingerly and pried himself off the bench onto shaky feet. He looked back at Draco, who seemed to have curled up on the wooden work surface and fallen asleep, despite being soaked in sweat and spattered with come, with his trousers still around his thighs. Harry looked around for the rest of his clothes and thankfully found them on the floor in a corner. He struggled into them, his legs weak and cramping a bit. He looked at Draco again, definitely asleep. He limped out of the room, shutting the door behind him, and made his way cautiously downstairs to the bathroom. He didn’t know what to think, he couldn’t really think. He really needed the loo, and a shower. In the end he ran a bath and dropped himself into it to soothe his aches. He didn’t feel up to standing in the shower.

What the fuck had just happened? I mean, yes, he had wanted Draco. Yes he had gone up to the attic for the temptation of spending time alone with him. Yes he had kissed him back when Draco had unexpectedly kissed him. He had been wildly happy in that moment to have a sudden chance at something he thought he could never have. But what had happened after that… it wasn’t that he hadn’t… I mean well… but it wasn’t that he had… and it wasn’t that it hadn’t felt good… mostly… but then it had hurt, it had hurt as well, and he had been genuinely afraid at one point that Draco had lost control… he had kept thinking, but I want this, I do want this. But he had never thought it would be like that. He had felt completely helpless, embarassingly so. He should have said to stop, to slow down… that he wasn’t sure he was ready to do that straight away, right there, like that. But he hadn’t, he hadn’t said. And it had felt good, most of it. And he had been hard, hadn’t he. He had come, hadn’t he. So he must have liked it.

So why did he feel so empty and shaky and… he chewed at his lip, knuckling his eyes angrily. He wasn’t going to cry. What kind of stupid, pathetic, idiot cries after having sex with the person they’ve been crushing on for two years. He ducked his head under the water and scrubbed at his hair and his face with his fingers. But when he came up he breathed in with a loud gulping sob and he couldn’t hold it back any more. He pulled his knees up, wrapped his arms around his head, and sobbed into the small damp space between his knees, feeling completely overwhelmed.

After a few minutes he heard a soft knock at the door.

He took a shaky breath and tried to sound normal. “I’m in the bath.”

“What’s wrong?”

It was Remus on the other side, his heart lurched with disappointment and a few fresh tears welled up, because he had half hoped it was Draco come to check on him. Draco who had fucking fallen asleep on top of him without so much as a how was it for you. He had thought this Draco was different, less selfish. Maybe not.

“Harry?”

Shit. “I’m fine,” he tried, but he could hear for himself just how not fine he sounded.

“I’m coming in,” said Remus.

“No, I...”

The door opened and Remus was at the side of the bath before Harry could protest any more. “What’s happened.” Remus frowned suddenly, looking at Harry’s neck. “What’s...”

Harry put his hand over the bruise Draco had left on him, far too late to hide what it was.

“What happened,” Remus said more urgently.

“Nothing,” Harry protested.

“You were crying, I heard you from outside. Where’s Draco?”

“He’s… I don’t know…. he’s nothing to do with it.”

“He hurt you?”

“No, it’s just… it’s nothing. It’s… personal. I’m fine.”

But Harry found himself faced with another wolf as Remus lurched to his feet, his instincts flaring wildly.

“Please,” said Harry, pulling himself together and scrambling out of the bath, wrapping himself in a towel. “I’m fine. I was just a bit… confused. Things got a bit out of hand… but I can deal with it. I just need a good nights sleep, it’s been a long day with my shoulder and everything.”

“Harry, if Draco has overstepped and hurt you for any reason you can tell me. He’s not used to having new people around, I thought he had himself under control, but if I was wrong I need to know about it.”

Harry had managed to shove some of his feelings back inside and his brain was starting to switch back on. “He’s different from you, isn’t he,” he said, hoping to change the topic. “It’s like he’s more wolf. Why is that?”

Remus sighed, not fooled but willing to talk in the hopes that Harry might reciprocate, he sat on the edge of the bath as Harry got dressed. “Draco and I were turned by the same person, but Greyback bit me and then disappeared. My wolf was brought up by my parents, by wizards, and always supressed as much as possible. Because of that it’s only really strong on the full moon. Draco was given to Greyback and his pack to train, he was expected to be part of Voldemort’s army of dark creatures. He was forceably taught to push the wolf out even without the full moon, to be like Greyback, part wolf all the time. And if he had not learned those lessons he would likely not have survived the war. It means he can use more of the wolves’ skills, but he is also more vulnerable to its needs and desires. It was less than a year, and I’ve worked with him ever since to learn to suppress it, but those initial months are vital in creating the balance between wolf and man. They can’t be entirely undone.”

Harry nodded thoughtfully, the events of the evening more understandable, though still upsetting and confusing. Had Draco even intended to do what he had done, would he remember it if it had been the wolf in control, if he did would he stand by his actions or want to deny them?

“Will you tell me what happened now?” Remus asked.

Harry blushed, but did his best to explain without being too explicit.

–

Draco woke up and was instantly aware he wasn’t in his bed. He sat up on the hard wooden work bench, and took stock of himself. “Shit,” he whispered. He located his wand, cleaned himself off and stood up to fasten his trousers. He glanced around the room and ascertained that there was nothing that needed dealt with right now and that Harry was definitely not there. “Bugger, classy Draco, really classy.” He wasn’t sure what to think of what had happened, but he knew falling asleep straight afterwards was going to win him no awards. Especially if he was right about Potter’s virginity, although after the fact he rather hoped he was mistaken. It had been a bit rough for a first time. It had been a spectacular shag though, for both of them he hoped.

He crept down the stairs from the lab and into the hallway. Everything seemed quiet, it must be well into the early hours of the morning. He looked at Harry’s door, took a half step towards it, hovered indecisively, then decided he was probably asleep. He opened the door to his own room instead and froze there. Remus was sitting on his bed reading a book.

They looked at one another. Remus closed the book and set it precisely on the side table. Draco knew him well enough to see he was furious, he was controlling every little movement to keep his wolf in check. The way he could and Draco never quite managed. Draco swallowed and closed the bedroom door.

“Is everything all right?” he asked quietly.

“I put Harry to bed a couple of hours ago,” said Remus. “I found him crying in the bath tub.”

Draco felt the blood drain out of his face. Crying? “I… I didn’t think...”

“No, you didn’t!” hissed Remus, standing up. “You didn’t think. You felt, and you wanted, and you took!”

Draco put a hand over his face in horror and leant back against the door. “I’m sorry.”

“I am not the person you should be apologising to.”

“I know… I mean but yes, I should. I know how important Harry is to you...”

Remus was in front of him faster than Draco could react. “Yes, he is. He is all that is left of James and Lily and Sirius, all that is left of the very best of us! If you were anyone else I would throw you out of this house right now.”

Draco’s wolf was no help with the fear he felt, he had accepted Remus as his pack leader when he had moved in with him. It was the only way they could work, one of them had to be in charge and it was certainly not going to be Draco. So now his wolf only wanted to roll over and bare it’s belly to his superior and hope not to be disembowelled. But that wouldn’t work with Remus, who hated his wolf and only tolerated Draco’s. “I’ll leave,” said Draco, his voice shaking though his fingers, still in shock that Harry had been so upset over what had happened. “If that’s what you want.”

“Damn it, Draco. I’m not saying that, I’m not… look he told me it was consensual.” Remus spat the word as if it was contaminated. “But I know what I saw, whatever you did, he wasn’t ready for it. And I’m so angry.” Remus spun away, breathing hard, the words hissing out, fists clenched. “I know how hard you fight to act like a man and not an animal, I know because sometimes I do too, and this is one of those times. Of all the stupid fucking things you could have done… you try me, Draco… this tries me to the edge of my patience. He’s like a son to me, or a brother, I don’t know, but if any other man had made him cry I’d probably rip their hearts out.”

It was too much and Draco whined in his throat, stepping forward and dropping to his knees by Remus. He pawed the other man’s thigh lightly, tipping his head to the side and bearing his jugular.

Remus looked down at him. “Pete’s sake, Draco,” he muttered. But his hand touched Draco’s pulse in acknowledgement and Draco could sense his wolf retreating at the show of submission. “Just tell me you can fix this. Because if he does need you to leave, then I will ask you to, at least until this is all resolved anyway.”

“I… I don’t know,” Draco admitted. “I knew I’d got… a bit carried away. But I thought he was there with me… mostly. Maybe a bit overwhelmed, but not… not wanting to stop or anything.”

“What we want isn’t always simple. He seems a lot younger than our Harry, less sure of himself.”

“I know.”

“And yet...”

“I know! I didn’t plan it, I didn’t even know he was interested! He just kept smelling like he was and then he came upstairs and told me he was gay and I just...”

“Stop talking. I don’t want to hear excuses for why it happened. I want to know that it won’t happen again and that you will do your best to make things right with him tomorrow. I’ve taken the morning off to make sure things are dealt with, I won’t leave you alone with him unless I can be sure he’s all right.”

“I will, of course I will. And it won’t, I swear it. If I even feel half an urge to I’ll throw myself out.”

“We’ll see,” said Remus. “Get to bed. Teddy will likely be awake in a few hours.”

–

Harry slept in that morning, and he wasn’t just hiding in his room as Remus had checked on him a few times and found him still sleeping. Draco was on his last nerve with anxiety over what to say and how Harry might be when he finally woke up. Remus seemed much calmer, though it could be hard to tell with the older man, he had so much self control.

It was half past ten when Harry finally came downstairs. He had either healed or glamoured the love bite Draco had left on his neck, as it was no longer visible.

Remus had taken Teddy out for a walk into town half an hour ago, admonishing Draco to step carefully when Harry finally appeared. And as a result Draco didn’t know how to step at all, he was so terrified of making things worse.

Harry stopped in the kitchen door, where Draco was sitting nursing a cold cup of tea. They stared at each other.

“Where’s Teddy?” asked Harry.

Draco cleared his tight throat. “Remus took the morning off, they’ve gone into town for a bit.”

Harry flushed. “Um… I kind of bumped into Remus last night after we… um...”

“I’m sorry,” said Draco.

“What?”

“I’m sorry, I… I shouldn’t have let myself get out of control. I was out of line and I’m sorry if I hurt you. I… if you’d rather I wasn’t here I can go stay somewhere else.”

“Where would you go?”

“That doesn’t matter, I can go.” Draco stood. “I should go. I’m sorry.”

Harry looked bewildered, but he grabbed Draco’s arm as he tried to move past him through the door. “Wait, you don’t have to leave. I never said that.”

“Oh, I thought...” They got tangled in the doorway and Draco pulled away and stumbled back in to the hall.

“I don’t know what Remus said,” Harry began. “I’d rather he hadn’t...”

“I’m only here at his discretion,” Draco interrupted. “I had no right to do what I did. I’d understand if you weren’t comfortable around me.”

“I...” Harry seemed uncertain. “You don’t have to leave, this is your home. If you… if you regret what we did then we can just… forget about it.”

“I do, I absolutely do. Thank you. I’ll… I’ll leave you to your breakfast.” Draco made his escape up the stairs, his heart still pounding. Relieved that he wasn’t going to have to leave, but sad that he had clearly ruined any possibility that Harry and he might have had something. But then what was the point in that anyway, weren’t they trying to send Harry back home. But he wished he could at least have had an untained memory of last night, rather than knowing he had misread Harry completely and pushed him into something he hadn’t wanted at all. If it hadn’t been for that it would have easily been the best sexual experience Draco had ever had.

–

Harry sat down at the table, feeling bewildered again. He had felt better this morning, emotionally anyway. He thought talking to Remus last night had probably helped, embarassing though it had been. He had felt he understood better why Draco had been so...intense. And really… he had enjoyed it. He had just been a bit freaked out by how sudden it had all been, and how … forceful… and then for Draco to just fall asleep on him.

He had been hoping that they could talk about it, maybe agree to slow things down a bit. But it looked like his initial fear had been right, Draco hadn’t been in control at all, remembered it, but regretted it. And now he was just supposed to pretend the only sex he’d ever had, had never happened. And he felt upset all over again. He had thought this was the start of something, maybe not the best start, but a start. And now it was nothing, well to Draco any way. It would never be nothing to him.

He stood up to try and make himself breakfast, feeling all the aches again that he had woken up with. Aches from Draco, aches that he had been more pleased than annoyed about. Now aches that just reminded him he was an idiot who should probably have said no. But then if he’d said no it would never have happened at all, and he didn’t think he wanted that either. If he could only have Draco once, he’d take it, messy and intense and confusing as it was. It was better than never at all.

He was in the living room when Remus came back with Teddy in time for lunch. Draco hadn’t come back downstairs. He still didn’t feel all that well, his shoulder ached faintly, which it shouldn’t, his legs and his back and … elsewhere hurt from last night, and despite getting plenty of sleep again he still felt bone tired.

“Harry?” Remus called. “Draco?”

“Harry? Draco?” Teddy echoed.

“I’m in here,” said Harry. He sat up and when Teddy ran at him he stood up to catch him and everything promptly greyed out.

When he came to he was lying on the sofa again with a worried looking Remus hovering over him. “Harry? Can you hear me?”

“Mmm… what happened.”

“You passed out,” said Remus.

“Stood up too quickly,” he muttered.

“Does that happen to you?” Remus asked. “Is that normal?”

“No,” Harry tried to sit up, but Remus pushed him back down. “Think I’m coming down with something, been tired all morning.”

Draco was standing in the doorway and he and Remus exchanged a loaded look. “Can you go upstairs and owl Hermione?”

Draco nodded his understanding.

When he came back downstairs, Remus called him into the kitchen. “You and Harry talked about things?”

“I apologised, it’s all… resolved I think. Unless he’s said otherwise to you.”

“He said everything was fine. I’m more concerned about his health right now, For all he had a … busy day yesterday, he shouldn’t be feeling this weak. He wants to think it’s flu, but I don’t think so.”

“I’d smell flu,” agreed Draco. “He doesn’t smell ill, not that way anyway. He smells… weak. I can’t quite explain it, I haven’t smelled anything similar. I was distracted by his… other scents, but it’s been there for a couple of days at least. I almost think… ” he stopped that thought before he completed it. He had almost said he thought his wolf had gotten as out of control as it had partly because Harry smelled weakened, vulnerable. He didn’t think Remus would appreciate that. “Nothing. Maybe you should owl Severus as well.”

A flurry of owls and floo calls later and Madame Pomfrey was stepping through their Floo accompanied by Severus, and only a short time after that Harry was being taken away by Poppy to the Infirmary at Hogwarts for more tests.

“I have explained the situation to Minerva,” Severus told them before he left. “Potter’s presence will remain a secret to all but ourselves and Poppy.”

“What about the other Harry?” asked Remus.

“Miss Granger doesn’t think we should worry them yet, not until we know more. I agree, one Potter at a time.”

“You don’t think they’ll already be worried, if he’s showing the same symptoms?” urged Remus.

“If they are concerned enough they’ll take him to St Mungo’s, then at least we’ll have a second opinion,” said Snape, clearly disinterested.

Remus sighed and turned to Draco. “I’m going with them, I can come back later.”

Draco shook his head. “Stay if you need to, I’ve got Teddy and you can owl me if there are any changes.”

“All right,” Remus agreed. “I’ll be home for dinner tomorrow, hopefully with Harry. I’ll bring that mint.”

Draco nodded and the two of them stepped outside and apparated away.

Draco shut the door and leaned back against it. He was afraid that he’d made a terrible mess of everything. He needed to think it all out properly and decide what the hell to do.

–

It was just after 5am in the morning and it was dark and windy outside the windows of the infirmary. Hermione had just arrived back, having gone home to sleep for a few hours. Remus was only recently asleep in a bed next to Harry’s in the private room off Poppy’s office. Harry had slept through the entire night, despite the constant bustling around him as Madame Pomfrey and Professor Snape ran tests.

“His magic is being drained,” Madame Pomfrey explained, her face drawn. “But I can’t locate any physical or immediate magical cause. Normally this kind of drain wouldn’t be life threatening, although losing your magic is punishment enough for any wizard, but the drain seems to be affecting more than just his magic. His red blood cell count is low, his brain activity is abnormal, and his organs seem to be slowly shutting down. If what you told me is true then that is likely causing it, but I have no idea how to treat it. We’ve seen that potions can slightly slow some of the symptoms and mask others, but they do nothing for the underlying problem.”

“How long would you say he has?” asked Snape, with no flicker of emotion.

“At the current rate of decline, I would estimate maybe a fortnight, no longer. But without knowing the exact cause or mechanism it could speed up or slow down due to factors I simply don’t understand. There’s really nothing else I can do, this is beyond my abilities, it’s not really a medical problem at all. It’s not a direct curse or spell, it’s nothing I can treat.”

Snape simply nodded his agreement and turned to leave the room.

Hermione hurried out after him and grabbed his arm as soon as the door shut behind them. “If we got them further apart do you think it would slow it down?”

“This is not the place to discuss it.” Snape tugged his arm out of her grasp.

“He’s dying! What does secrecy matter now!”

With a glower, Snape cast Muffliato. “If we are to have any chance of saving them then we must prevent them being found out by the Ministry, it would take as long as they have just to persuade them of what we already know to be the truth and likely as not they would take them both to St Mungo’s or into the Ministry… and yes, I do think keeping them as far apart as possible is likely best. Or at least the only idea for treatment we have come up with aside from the mandrake, and that’s only having a small effect.”

“Then we should take him out of the country, as far away as possible. Australia or New Zealand!”

“I have considered it, it is a long shot but if we make no progress in the next few days… perhaps you should start organising an international portkey. Can you get one for three of us without giving all of our identities?”

“Which three?”

Snape scowled. “Potter and the two of us. Remus can hardly go with the full moon approaching… I will go to continue trying to discover a solution as I presume will you? Can you get one or not?”

“Yes, I think so. I’ll go back to London and start the process, and check in with Ginny again.”

“You’re going to tell them,” Snape stated flatly.

“Yes,” said Hermione, her eyes flashing a challenge. “He could die, they deserve to know what’s happening. And if they know then I can get Madame Pomfrey down to compare their conditions.”

“You will impress upon them the need for secrecy.”

“Of course I will,” said Hermione impatiently.

Severus waited until she had left before allowing himself a small smile at her determination, before it was smothered by a yawn and he went to get some sleep.


	6. Extreme Solutions

Harry woke up slowly, as if rising up through golden syrup. The first thing he heard was snoring and the first thing he saw was Remus lying on his back on the bed next to his. He looked around the small room, yawning. It looked like Hogwarts and the bed felt like an infirmary bed, although he didn’t recognise the room. He had spent enough time in them at school to have a strong sense memory. It was morning, it felt like it had been morning already, not that long ago, in Remus’s cottage. The light of the newly risen sun was striking the wall opposite him.

He sat up, he felt heavy and drained. What had happened to him now? He made it to his feet, and pushed off his own bed to take the few staggered steps over to Remus. He shook his shoulder. “Remus?”

It took a couple of goes to wake Remus, by which point Harry was feeling shaky enough to regret getting out of bed. “Harry?” Remus muttered. “Should you be up?”

“Um, maybe not,” said Harry, leaning heavily on Remus’s bed.

Remus swung out of bed and took him back to his own, yawning as he did. “Sorry, I didn’t get much sleep last night.”

“Suspect that was my fault,” said Harry as he lay back down. “I don’t remember much after we got here, how long have I been asleep.”

Remus ducked his head and rubbed his face. “A long time. Are you hungry?”

“I suppose. I should be, shouldn’t I? What’s wrong with me, Remus?”

“I fell asleep before they finished, I’m afraid, but… it doesn’t look good. It’s not good. And it’s definitely not flu.”

“It’s because I’m here, isn’t it?”

“Yes, it seems fairly irrefutable. Hermione said that our Harry is ill as well, although we don’t know yet if it’s as bad.”

“Then it is bad.” Harry yawned again, his attention wandering despite the importance of the question.

“Yes… let me go find Severus or Poppy if I can. I’ll find out if there’s a plan or any solid information, and get you some breakfast.”

“All right,” said Harry, settling back into his pillows.

When Remus came back with a grumpy Severus Snape and a tray of food, Harry was asleep again.

“Might have known that Potter wouldn’t leave me to get on with my life for long without some sort of crisis,” Snape was muttering under his breath. “Two teachers and the school nurse completely at his beck and call with term in full swing, and I suppose I’m meant to believe he’s actually going to die this time.”

“No-one can cheat death forever, Severus,” Remus said sadly. “I can’t be so blithe, and I don’t believe for a second you are either.”

Snape sighed. “Perhaps not. But he does have a knack for it. There is always hope.” He touched a hand to Remus’ elbow.

Remus smiled. “Yes, there is at that.” He put down the tray by Harry’s bed and shook his shoulder gently. “Harry?”

Harry blinked awake again. “Hmm?”

“I brought you porridge and tea. Severus says it’s probably best you don’t eat anything more solid.”

“Mm, Snape?”

“Yes, Potter. At your disposal, apparently.”

Harry missed the sarcasm entirely, struggling to sit himself up.

Remus helped him and then placed the bowl of porridge on top of the blankets in his lap. “Here you are, can you manage?”

“He can take this first.” Snape produced a flask of potion. “It will give him a little more energy.”

Remus passed it to Harry to drink. “You found something? I thought...”

“No, it is only a strengthening solution. The effects are superficial, but it will allow him to be more alert without speeding the symptoms.”

Harry had swallowed the potion, and set it aside, taking up his porridge bowl with more interest. “So what will help.”

“Nothing,” said Snape.

“What?” Harry put down the spoon. “You mean I’m just going to feel like this as long as I’m here?”

“I mean that you will be dead within two weeks if we don’t miraculously figure out how to send you back to your own universe.”

“Severus,” admonished Remus.

Harry gaped. “Dead?”

“I’m sorry, Harry,” said Remus. “We’re still working on it, we haven’t given up on finding some sort of solution. Hermione thinks that taking you further away from your other self might give us more time, or even slow things enough to be negligible.”

“Is she right?” Harry asked Snape directly. Trusting him not to sugar coat things.

“She is hopeful,” said Snape. “We believe the problem is that the universe cannot differentiate between the two of you, that you share the same life force and magical energies between you and it is not enough to sustain two people.”

“Then how would being further away change that?”

“She hopes that if you are further away the universe might realise you are two people and not one, and allocate it’s energy appropriately.” He looked unconvinced.

“You don’t agree?”

“I am less hopeful. I cannot say it will not work… but I will be surprised if it makes much difference at all. The distance between England and Australia is negligible from the point of view of the universe.”

“And yet it is significantly harder to apparate over long distances magically, there’s no wizard known could apparate as far as Australia without draining themselves probably to death,” said Remus. “So from a magical point of view it is far away.”

Snape sniffed, clearly unconvinced by the point. But Harry felt slightly less anxious, knowing that perhaps it was simply Snape being overly cynical. “And sending me back?”

“We are no closer to a way to do that than we were before,” said Snape. “By which I mean to say we have no idea how to even begin to do it.”

Remus had sat heavily down on the other bed, looking grimmer than Harry at the boldly stated facts. “There’s still time,” he said.

“Sure,” said Harry, looking down at his porridge.

“Miss Granger is arranging a portkey so that we can test her distance theory, but it will likely take a few days to do the paperwork,” Snape told him.

“Do I have to stay here till then?” asked Harry.

“Madame Pomfrey has exhausted her knowledge, there’s nothing more she can do for you,” noted Snape. “And it will be difficult for her to look after you and deal with the day to day needs of the school without anyone finding out you are here.”

“Would you want to go back to mine?” asked Remus. “Or was there somewhere else you wanted to go?”

“If I’m dying I don’t want to spend my time stuck in the Hospital Wing,” said Harry. “I can lie in bed at yours just as easily can’t I… if you and Draco don’t mind that is.”

“Of course not, we’d be happy to have you there.”

Harry wasn’t sure if Draco would agree, but as had always been the case he was eager not to be in the Hospital Wing for any longer than absolutely necessary. And Remus’ small cottage felt like a home, the first place that had since he had left Gryffindor Tower at the end of sixth year.

After Harry had finished his porridge, and Remus a rather more substantial breakfast, they made their way to the Floo in Madame Pomfrey’s office, which was one of only two in the school that allowed travel outside of the castle. Snape arrived back to see them off with an armful of potions. Harry stood back as he explained them to Remus, watching the two interact with a curious eye.

“The strengthening solution should be used no more than twice a day and will last about two to three hours, use it to help him eat as it should improve his appetite. This potion is the one that seems to slightly slow the issue, it needs to be taken on an empty stomach, once a day before bed ideally, the mandrake takes eight hours to infuse fully into the system and works best on a still body.”

“You’ll be there for that though.”

“Yes, I will come after curfew.” His voice dropped lower. “I can come back here afterwards...”

“Don’t, stay,” said Remus. “I’m sending Teddy to Andromeda early, I’ve already owled her, and I’d feel better with you there, in case something happens.”

Snape nodded, and they finished loading the vials into his bag. His hand lingered on Remus’ arm and Harry felt awkward, and looked out of the window. When Remus came over to Harry’s side to take him to the Floo, Snape had already left.

They spun out of the large kitchen fire place awkwardly, with Harry leaning heavily on Remus. Then he staggered over to the side to throw up in the sink.

“Sorry,” he said, wiping his mouth. “Never was great with floo travel at the best of times.”

“Don’t worry about it,” said Remus. “Let’s get you back to bed.”

Harry thought about arguing, but in truth it had been a good couple of hours since he had taken the strengthening solution, and as much as he had claimed to want up just the short journey from Hogwarts to here had him ready to collapse.

He leant against the wall as Remus opened the kitchen door and walked slowly into the hall, hoping he wasn’t going to throw up again.

“We’re home,” Remus called, as he always did.

Harry felt himself flush, he knew he looked far from his best and he didn’t want Draco to see him like this even if he wasn’t interested in pursuing a relationship.

Draco brought Teddy up to see him once he was settled back in the bedroom.

“Say goodbye to Uncle Harry now, Teddy.”

“Already?” said Harry.

“It’ll be full moon in a few days anyway,” said Draco. “Andromeda’s agreed to take Teddy a bit early this month.”

“I’m going to stay at Granny’s for five whole sleeps!” said Teddy.

Harry felt the prickle of unexpected tears. If he really was dying this could be goodbye for good. “Give me a hug then,” said Harry thickly.

Teddy hugged him with the simple enthusiasm only young children seemed to have.

“Go on down to Daddy,” said Draco. “I’ll be down in a minute.”

Harry turned away a bit, unsure of himself and feeling a bit embarassed, as Draco came and sat at the end of the bed.

“We’re both going over to Andromeda’s to drop him off, she’ll want us to stay for dinner, but one of us will come back, it can be Remus if you prefer.”

“You don’t have to, I can be on my own for a few hours.”

“One of us will come back. So stay in bed and wait for us if you need anything. I know things are probably a bit awkward, but… just make sure you say if there’s something you need.”

Draco looked as if he had something else to say, but he didn’t. Just fiddled with the bedspread a bit, not looking at Harry, and then finally left the room.

–

Harry was asleep again when someone woke him up by shaking his shoulder. It was still daylight. “Who’s...” he said blurrily.

“It’s me,” Draco said unhelpfully.

But Harry had already figured it out from the blur of blond hair showing in the lowering sunlight. “Malfoy?” He fumbled for his glasses and Draco pushed them towards his fingers. “Is something wrong?”

“No,” said Draco. “Yes. I mean… I need to tell you something.”

“Eh… okay.” Harry tried to lever himself into a sitting position, but it made him dizzy and he slumped back down.

“Fuck,” said Draco. “I’m so sorry…” His voice was cracked with unexpected emotion. “I didn’t know, you have to believe me. If I’d known… but I should have said something sooner. I just kept hoping it wasn’t… and I thought for certain Severus would be able to help you when you got ill… but...” He broke off.

“What are you talking about?”

“This is my fault, Remus explained everything at Andromeda’s and she brought up the possibility that the Black family library might have something in it and I realised I had to face up to it,” Draco said miserably, turning to look at him. “I’d take it back if I could, but you can’t uncast it.” He looked away again.

“Uncast what? What are you on about?” Harry tried to sit up again and made it this time.

“It was me, I cast the spell that brought you here.” Draco sat on the bed, his shoulders slumped, facing away from him.

“What?” Harry said incredulously. “How is that even possible? And why would you...”

“I didn’t know what would happen,” Draco pleaded. “I didn’t just suddenly decide to drag you into this universe… the spell must have gone wrong somehow. But the timing is too much of a coincidence.”

“Look, just tell me exactly what you did,” said Harry, feeling exhaustion already pulling at him again.

“There’s a spell book I had. It belonged to my Mother, to the Blacks, a family heirloom. She kept it hidden from Voldemort all the time he was in the mansion. It was tiny, it only had a handful of spells in it, but they’re all dangerous in their own way. The one I cast was called the End of Desire. You don’t know what it’ll do, people only ever cast it if they’re… desperate. It gives you what you really need, and what you most deserve, but no one can know what that might be. It’s killed people in the past, or so my Mother said. I thought… I thought that it might change me back. But when I cast it nothing seemed to have happened. And then the next day Remus showed up with you. But I thought that it couldn’t be. It made no sense. But...” Malfoy turned around, looking ashamed. “For some reason the spell brought you here, and now it’s going to kill you… and I don’t know what to do.”

Although Draco sounded defeated, to Harry this sounded like half way to a solution. If they finally knew how he had got here. “Maybe if I cast the spell again it’ll send me back!”

Draco’s face fell even further, which Harry wouldn’t have thought was possible. “Except I burnt the book when nothing happened. I was angry. I thought it was a fake, a joke, that we’d had this supposedly powerful spell book all this time and actually none of the spells ever worked. Everyone had just been too afraid to ever try them. My fucking family all over, all tradition and no substance.”

“Don’t you remember how it went?” asked Harry desperately.

“I’ve tried to write it down,” Draco whispered, and Harry realised he was clutching a piece of parchment in his hand. “But I know I haven’t got everything, there was a potion and runes and it was really complicated, and even if we could recast it, look what happened last time. It could just make everything worse.”

“Worse than me and this universe’s Harry ending up dead?”

“Severus and Granger might still figure out a cure… there’s still time isn’t there?”

“Not a lot. Hermione wants to take me to Australia to see if being further away from him helps. I’m not sure if I want to go. I’d rather be here.” Harry reached out hesitantly and put his hand over Draco’s where he was twisting the parchment. Draco jumped slightly at the touch and looked down at their hands, his cheeks going a little pink. “You should give this to Snape when he gets here,” said Harry, letting his hand linger. A spell to give Draco what he needed most had brought Harry here, could that possibly mean there was still a chance for them?

“I will.” He didn’t move his hand away, nor did he react any further to Harry’s touch.

Harry took his hand back, uncertain still. “Draco?”

“I’m sorry about all this,” Draco said quietly. “I’m sorry I put my problems on you, I’m just… I’m poison.” He stood up fast, pulling his hand away and strode out of the room.

Harry felt his heart pounding in his throat and thought about going after him, but he could hear him thumping down the stairs and didn’t feel strong enough to do so.

–

Draco sat in the living room and stared out the window at the bare branches of the trees. He should speak to Severus as soon as possible, but he wouldn’t risk leaving Harry in the house alone and Remus would be a couple of hours still. He had hidden how bad things had been for him from Remus and now he doubted the other man would understand why Draco had ever done something as drastic as cast the spell. Before the war his life had been filled with potential, or at least he had believed it was. He would be rich and well respected and important, just like his Father. He would marry well and produce the perfect heir and have his pick of whomever he wanted on the side. He had genuinely believed this, even through sixth year it had kept him going. Things were awful, but if he just did his job everything would be all right. Right up until that horrific moment on top of the Astronomy tower when he had held his wand on Albus Dumbledore and known he couldn’t do it. They had seen each other, that night, he and Dumbledore. He had looked into the soul of a man he had called a fool and seen only kindness and understanding, and then Fenrir Greyback had ripped out his throat and taken Draco’s life with it.

He loved Teddy, he liked having something he could do that meant something. But it scarcely touched the emptiness he felt, the guilt, the regrets, the fear, the nightmares. The hollow ache under his breastbone that only the wolf was able to mask, the wolf that he had to stubbornly and constantly beat back.

He wished sometimes that Remus had chosen him, not Severus. At least then they could have been a real family. But despite, or perhaps because of, that one night very early on when they were both still a mess and had fallen into bed together when slightly inebriated, Remus was not interested in Draco. And in truth Draco was only drawn to him in that way because he was his pack leader. Submitting sexually to Remus came naturally to Draco the wolf, an attraction he had never felt as Draco the boy. And Remus could tell it came from the wolf and so rejected it. He had been kind, somehow that had made it worse.

So Draco had drawn away, tried to be the model houseguest and nanny. Such a fall from the heights of his ambitions. It wasn’t that he still wanted all the things he had thought he would have, it was the feeling of failure, of being unwanted and unimportant and undesirable. Of knowing that likely even Teddy would see him for what he was once he was old enough to hear about Draco’s part in the war. It brought him to hidden tears to think of Teddy one day soon coming back home and looking at him with newly disappointed eyes.

No amount of pitying forgiveness from Remus or Molly or Bill Weasley or Aunt Andromeda would ever fill the holes left by the war or let him forget the way his Mother couldn’t quite look him in the eye or that his Father refused to have him in the house or that he was in every sense of the word a second class citizen. Remus and Severus wanted to help him, but he wanted them to look at him and see someone strong enough not to need their help. Someone who didn’t still have nightmares so awful that he warded his room so as not to wake Remus and Teddy. Who didn’t sometimes cry himself to sleep wishing that Greyback had just killed him. Someone with a future.

He hadn’t wanted them to know that he was the kind of person who was desperate enough to try a potentially lethal spell to gain back some feeling of pride and control. Remus would never forgive him if Harry died because of Draco’s weakness.

There had to be some way to fix this. He drew parchment, ink and quill out of a drawer and started scribbling a letter. When it was done he used his wand to make a copy and to make two copies of the parchment where he had written out the details of the spell he had cast as best as he could remember it. He rolled up and sealed the two letters and sent them off with their owl, instructing it to go to Hermione first, as Severus would be in class. Then he forced himself up to check on Harry, who was asleep again. Then there was nothing to do but wait and think.

Hermione arrived before Severus or Remus, her eyes flashing with fury and her hair puffed up like an angry cat. She pushed past him through the doorway and into the living room, and once she had made sure they were the only people listening she turned on him. “If either Harry dies because you sat on this information for so long I will send you after him so quickly you won’t realise you’re dead until after the funeral. You idiot! What were you thinking?”

“Does it really matter now?” answered Draco, trying not to wrinkle his nose. The peppery smell of anger always made him want to sneeze and he didn’t want her to take it the wrong way. “I should have said something sooner, my only defence is at first I just couldn’t believe the two things were related.”

“And to burn a book!” Hermione looked utterly disgusted. “Of all the ridiculous, selfish things to do.”

“Well, it’s done. And there’s no unburning it,” said Draco flatly. He’d put up with a scolding from Severus or Remus, but not from Hermione Granger. “Are you just going to yell at me or are we going to see if we can do something to actually help.”

Hermione actually growled at him, though he didn’t think it was intentional.

“Perhaps I’ll make some tea,” he suggested.

“Don’t bother, I came here to check on Harry then I’m going straight home to go through the books I have from the Grimmauld Place library and see if there’s anything that relates to the spell.”

“What about the books Potter gave to the Ministry?”

Hermione sighed. “If they were labelled properly I should be able to order them as a set to review. Severus is going through the ones that went to Hogwarts and bringing any that might be relevant.”

“I’m not sure how helpful they’ll be, the spells in the book I used were all supposedly created by the Black family themselves and never seen by anyone but them. That book was the only copy of them and it was at least three hundred years old.”

“And now it’s gone,” said Hermione. “So the Black library and what you wrote down is the best we have…” she gasped in sudden realisation. “What am I talking about, we can look at your memory of casting the spell in a pensieve!”

“Will that work? Surely it’ll only show what I remember and I wrote that down already.”

“You’ve never used a pensieve, have you?”

“No,” he admitted.

“You remember far more than you think, especially with something so recent. Of course there’s a danger that you may have overwritten some of that memory incorrectly trying to recall the spell to write down, but there will still be far more there than you can consciously recall. Oh this is wonderful, I must owl Professor Snape and have him bring his pensieve with him.” She dashed out the room immediately, looking for their owl who had only recently returned.

Later that evening the four of them sat in Remus’ living room with the pensieve discarded to the side and notes everywhere. Draco had sent Severus and Hermione alone into his memory, not wanting the embarassment of watching them watch him in a moment of extremity. Hermione at least had been a little kinder to him since viewing it, Severus had if anything been slightly more disapproving and Draco knew exactly why. He had let his emotions get the better of him, something Serverus did not approve of and was constantly trying to teach him to avoid.

Harry had been down for dinner earlier with the help of the strengthening potion, but other than those two hours he had slept throught the rest of the day. Draco was deeply aware of his presence upstairs, slowly weakening with every heart beat, all because he had wanted some of his life back. He didn’t need Hermione’s threats or Severus’ disapproval, he’d never forgive himself if Harry died because of him.

Hermione threw her notebook at the table suddenly. “This is impossible, the spell can’t be uncast, and recasting it could do anything! Nothing about it has anything to do with alternate universes, it’s barely harnessed wild magic at it’s most capricious. Casting it even once was complete idiocy!”

“Agreed,” said Severus darkly, glaring at Draco.

“Pointing fingers now isn’t helping,” sighed Remus. “If knowing the spell doesn’t present a cure then we need to go back to where we were before and keep looking for something that will stop the drain or that will mark Harry out as different from his other self from a magical perspective.”

“We haven’t tried polyjuice?” suggested Hermione.

“Doesn’t change your magical signature,” said Remus. “That’s why the Marauders Map can still tell who the person really is.”

“Besides which, long term use is physically degenerative,” added Snape. “Because of the clash between the physical body and the magical signature. It might even speed the drain.”

“So what does change your magical signature?” said Draco.

They all sat silent and thoughtful, reviewing their own knowledge, as the fire crackled in the hearth and rain spattered against the window.

“Becoming a werewolf,” answered Snape suddenly. “Or a vampire.”

Remus stared at him.

“Would that work?” asked Hermione slowly.

“No!” said Remus. “Absolutely not!”

“It’s more likely to work than taking him to Australia,” said Snape. “Becoming a werewolf intrinsically changes you as a person; physically, emotionally and magically.”

Draco felt a chill.

“Except you can come back from Australia,” said Remus. “You can’t just stop being a werewolf!”

  



	7. A Disagreeable Solution

It was late morning when Remus woke Harry with breakfast in bed. Harry swallowed the offered strengthening solution and noticed as it took effect just how tired and drawn Remus looked.

“Hermione has managed to get our Harry moved to a specialist unit in unusual magical maladies in Berlin, she was hoping the extra mileage might slow things down a bit,” Remus told him. “He went early this morning. Do you feel any different?”

“I didn’t notice anything,” Harry said. “But it’s not like I’ve been pushing myself. I only woke up half an hour ago.”

Remus nodded. “Right.”

Harry wondered if he should ask about the spell Draco had cast, he knew they had all been over to discuss it last night. But Remus didn’t look as if the discussion had gone well, so instead he decided to ask him the question that had been nagging at him for days. “Can I ask you something personal?”

“I suppose so,” said Remus.

“Did… did you always like men and women?”

Remus only looked faintly surprised. “Draco told you about Severus?” he guessed.

“Yeah.”

“I always liked both. Is that all you wanted to know?”

“Yes, well… I did wonder… Snape?”

Remus laughed. “Yes. I wouldn’t expect you to understand it, that’s why I’ve never told you… the other you. It’s not something that’s particularly widely known, and intentionally so. Draco, Andromeda, the Headmistress and a few of the teachers. And you. Teddy doesn’t know, and I’d prefer you keep it that way.”

“I wouldn’t tell Teddy anything.”

“Severus and I… we have more in common than you might think. After the war… it turned out we understood each other better than we both might have expected. It works for us, what it is we have. Neither of us are looking to replace what might have been.”

“Then it’s just sex? Draco said he thought it was more.”

Remus looked a little flustered. “Nothing is ever simple, Harry. But it is also, I am afraid, none of your business. Severus would not thank me for discussing his personal life with you.”

“Yeah, sorry. I was just curious.”

“Harry… who we like, who we choose to be with in that way… it can be a very complicated thing. But sometimes it’s better not to overthink it, to go with what works no matter why that might be.”

Harry flushed. “Yeah, maybe. I never told anyone except Ginny that I thought I might prefer boys, and I made her promise not to tell anyone until I was ready for people to know. So I never actually did anything about it aside from… well, you know about that. Guess I waited a bit too long, didn’t I? Since I might be dead in a few days.”

“Don’t… we’ll figure something out. The portkey should be ready soon.”

“They’re only guessing that might work… and I don’t…. I feel it inside, it won’t be enough.” Harry looked down, feeling a surge of sadness flood through him. “That’s why I wondered… why I wanted to know...”

“Draco?”

Harry blushed very red this time. “Yeah. I liked him, back in my world,” he admitted. “But he was getting married so I never said anything. Then I ended up here and I thought maybe… but then he said he wanted to forget about it. But that spell he cast brought me here, so that has to mean something, doesn’t it?”

“Draco has also not had much opportunity to explore his feelings in that way. It took a long time before he felt he could control himself outwith our small family and even after that he certainly couldn’t risk becoming … emotionally aroused around someone new.”

“If he was that bad how could you let him look after Teddy?”

“That was your other selves issue, but it came from a lack of understanding. I actively took Greyback’s place as Draco’s pack leader when I took him in. As my son, Teddy couldn’t have been safer with Draco, he would have protected him with his life even before he came to care for him personally. As to how he feels about you, I can’t answer that, only he can. I suppose if the spell brought you here it must have thought you were something he needed, but as it doesn’t seem to have born in mind that being here might kill you, I don’t think we can put too much weight on the decisions of wild magic.”

“I suppose not. So knowing the spell hasn’t helped?” he asked finally.

“No,” said Remus. “I’m afraid not. We have two possible things we could try, but one is unlikely to work and the other… well, we’ll see what happens after you travel to Australia.”

“Then that’s definitely happening.”

“Yes, the paperwork should come through today sometime. It’s a return portkey so if it doesn’t work you’ll be able to activate it to bring you back again. But you’ll spend at least a day there.”

“And then what?”

“Then we’ll see,” said Remus cryptically.

The paperwork did indeed come through, and Hermione arrived with permission for herself, Professor Snape and Harry Potter to portkey to Australia for research purposes. “Of course, they mean the other Harry, but if magic can’t tell the difference then neither can the International Portkey Authority.”

Harry, panicked by the distance and the uncertainty of it all, girded himself and asked for a moment to speak to Draco before they left, and so they were left alone in the living room while the others went to the kitchen to wait.

“I should be back in a day or two,” said Harry. “But in case I’m not… in case things happen faster than they expect… I wanted to say goodbye and that I’m not angry with you. I know this wasn’t what you expected when you cast that spell.”

“You’re not going to die,” said Draco.

“Maybe,” said Harry, unconvinced.

“No, you’re not.” Draco glanced at the closed door and moved closer, sitting by Harry on the sofa. “There’s another possibility if Australia doesn’t work, so don’t even think that this is it.”

“Another… Remus mentioned something this morning, but he never said what it was. I’d almost forgotten.”

“He doesn’t like it… it’s a bit of a compromise. But Severus thinks it’ll work and he knows a lot more about magical theory than Remus does. Even Granger thinks it’ll work, though she doesn’t like it.”

“What is it then?”

Draco looked guilty. “They don’t want you to know until we’re sure it’s the only option.”

“Well bully for them,” snapped Harry. “It’s me this is happening to. So tell me.”

Haltingly, Draco explained. “Severus pointed out that one way to distinguish you completely from your other self would be to … to turn you into a magical creature.”

“What?” said Harry, confused. “Like transfigure me into a hippogriff or something?”

“No, not a temporary transfiguration. Actually change you permanently by… turning you… making you a werewolf.”

Harry stared at him.

“Obviously you’d have to agree.”

“And that would work?”

“It changes you fundamentally, Severus says. Even your magical signature.”

“Who… who would do it?”

Draco flushed. “It would probably have to be me, Remus refused outright. He doesn’t think it should even be an option. But Severus says he’ll come around if there’s no other choice, and I agree. He wouldn’t let you die. But I don’t think he could do it even if he agreed to let it happen, and I wouldn’t want him to have to. He’s never bitten a person intentionally or unintentionally… I have. And this is all my fault. So I would do it, if you agreed to let me.”

“You’ve done it before?”

Draco looked away. “I wasn’t given Wolfsbane until after the war. I may not remember everything I did on those full moons, but I woke up with enough blood on me to know it wasn’t good. I don’t know if I ever turned anyone though or just… killed them.”

He looked sick and Harry regretted asking, Remus had said the war had been hard on Draco. His head was spinning with this new information. He had intended to ask Draco about what had happened between them, but the conversation had spun off in an entirely unexpected direction.

“I’ll tell the others you’re ready to go,” said Draco, standing up.

“No, wait.” Harry grabbed Draco’s arm. Draco sat down again, but Harry didn’t let go. “I wanted to… I wanted to ask, to say… the other night…” he finally blurted it out. “I was sorry that you regretted it. Cause I didn’t.”

“Didn’t what?”

“Regret it.” Harry could feel that his face was red. “I didn’t, don’t, regret it. I just… I wish that you didn’t too.”

“I thought… Remus said you were crying.”

Harry thought it wasn’t possible to be any more embarassed than he was, but apparently it was. “I wish he hadn’t told you that. I was just… it’s complicated… it was all a bit unexpected… and then you fell asleep, and I didn’t know what to think. And I got a bit upset. And I wanted to talk to you about it, but you were asleep, and then you said you would leave and...” he shrugged helplessly.

“You said you wanted to forget about it,” Draco said cautiously, trying to ignore his suddenly pounding heart.

“I thought you wanted to forget about it.”

“Oh. Well… I didn’t. I thought I’d… Remus was really angry with me, so I thought you...”

“I wasn’t angry,” said Harry. “I had hoped… maybe we could just take things a bit slower. If you wanted to… but then I thought you didn’t want to. But before I went away I wanted to tell you that I did… want to. I wanted you to know that. Just in case.”

“Oh,” said Draco. Harry let go of his arm, looking nervously away until Draco reached out again, as before, and touched his face. “Oh,” said Draco.

Harry looked up at him anxiously.

“This is a really inconvenient moment for you to have to go to Australia without me,” said Draco.

“Yeah, I guess. So does that mean you do… want to?” Harry licked his lips nervously.

“Yes,” said Draco, hammering down on his wildly over excited wolf. “I do want to. Very much.”

There was a rapping at the door. “Are you done yet? The portkey has to be activated by 4pm,” came Hermione’s voice.

Harry suddenly lurched forward and pressed his mouth to Draco’s in a swift and somewhat haphazard kiss. “I’ll be back before you know it,” he said quickly. Then he called out, “Yeah, we’re done.”

Draco quickly stood up as the door opened, his pulse still pounding and his cheeks pink. Granger paid him no mind but Severus narrowed his eyes at him. But it was five to four so there was no time to discuss anything before he and Remus were left alone in the house.

The full moon was tomorrow night.

–

Australia was hot, that was the first thing Harry felt after he recovered enough from the unpleasantness of the portkey to notice anything. He had fallen against Snape and was being held up by a firm, bony arm around his middle. He tried to step away, but the Portkey seemed to have stolen any remaining strength the last potion had given him. With a hiss of irritation Snape cast a featherweight spell and picked him up like a child. The portkey had fortunately taken them straight to the flat they had rented, so no-one but Hermione witnessed this embarassing moment, and soon enough Harry was lying on a bed.

“He never liked portkeys” said Hermione, hovering anxiously.

Snape took a series of readings and noted them down. “Get some sleep, Potter. We’ll see how you are in a few hours time.”

Harry didn’t even consider arguing, as despite the remaining thrill of having kissed Draco not so very long before, he was unable to keep his eyes open and managed only five minutes of wondering when he might get a chance to kiss him again, properly this time, before he was asleep.

He didn’t wake up again until he was being offered breakfast.

“Here,” said Hermione, offering him a potion.

He sat up after drinking it. “Am I getting better?” he asked.

“It’s only been twelve hours,” said Hermione, but she looked disappointed.

“But if it were going to work,” said Snape from the doorway. “The drain would have stopped entirely as soon as you arrived, leaving you to either stay the same or improve. The drain has not stopped, not has it slowed in any noticeable way.”

“It might…”

“It will not,” Snape interrupted her firmly. “Wishing will not change the facts. The theory has been disproven, leaving us with only one other possibility.”

“There’s time yet.”

“There is not. Not for what we wish to attempt.”

“When is the full moon?” asked Harry. Hermione looked surprised, Snape did not. “Draco told me before we left. When?”

“It is currently a little after 4am in Scotland, the full moon rises in about 14 hours time.”

“Harry, we don’t know if this will work either and it’s not something you can take back.”

“It is also not something we can wait on trying, as things are you will not survive to see the next full moon. If we are to make the attempt it must be tonight.”

“There isn’t going to be a way to send me home is there?” said Harry.

“It seems extremely unlikely.”

Hermione said nothing at all, just looked downcast.

“What would you do?” he asked Snape.

The man’s face was blank for a moment. “I would do it.”

“Even if Remus disagreed?”

Snape’s stare wavered. “He would not want you dead.”

“I don’t want to die,” said Harry. “But I don’t want Remus to blame Draco for me becoming a werewolf. I know this is all because of something he did, but that doesn’t make it his fault. He had no way of knowing that spell would affect anyone but him. And if he turns me he’ll be saving my life.”

“Let’s just wait here a little longer,” Hermione pleaded. “Eight more hours still gives us time to get back and prepare for the moon.”

They looked at Harry and he nodded. He could do with the time to think before he had to persuade Remus to accept what was going to happen.

“Eight hours,” agreed Snape.

–

When Draco woke up, Remus was already down in the kitchen drinking coffee. He could feel the ache of the oncoming change in his bones already, the moon wending it’s way around the earth towards them, tugging on his insides. He could smell Harry on his skin, he had slept in the empty bed in Teddy’s room. He wasn’t sure why.

“Has there been any news?” he asked.

Remus shook his head, he looked as if he hadn’t slept much. “It’s not like they can send an owl.” His voice was hoarse.

“And if they come back, if it hasn’t worked?”

Remus refused to look up. “It has to work.”

“I’m sorry, Remus. But if I have to...”

“Don’t say it.”

“Remus...”

“Would you take that from him… his humanity?”

“To save his life,” Draco said firmly.

“If you’d been given that choice, would you?”

Draco thought about it. “Yes,” he said. “To save my life, yes. I was selfish back then, even knowing I might kill someone I would have said yes.”

“And now?”

“Harry won’t ever have to kill anyone. He’s not being turned by Greyback, he’ll be turned by me. He’ll always have Wolfsbane, he’ll have me and he’ll have you. Won’t he?”

“Harry will always have me.”

Draco understood the unspoken implication. “But I won’t? If I turn him?”

“I don’t know, I can’t answer that. I can’t say I’ll forgive you because I don’t know if I will. I swore I’d never turn another person… if you turn him it’s as good as if I’d done it. I’m your pack leader… I could stop you.”

“No, you couldn’t.”

Remus stood fast, angry. “Couldn’t I?” He caught Draco by the neck and pinned him against the wall.

“I don’t want to fight you,” Draco choked out. “It’s his choice, I won’t do it unless he asks me to.”

Remus dropped him and walked away, his shoulders starting to shake. “I wish there was more time,” he said roughly. “If I knew it was this or he’d die tomorrow it would be easier.”

“It might as well be, we have no other ideas. I hate it as much as you.”

“Do you?” Remus turned to pin him down with a stare. “He’ll be yours once it’s done, isn’t that what you want? Isn’t that what the spell brought him here for?”

Draco paled.

“I’ve been thinking about it all night,” said Remus. “Why would a spell intended to give you what you need bring Harry here only for him to die? It only makes sense if it brought him here for you to turn, all of this because you wanted it.”

“I didn’t want this,” Draco protested. “If I had known...”

“You knew it was dangerous!” shouted Remus. “You cast that spell here in my home, knowing it was so dangerous that no-one had dared cast it in centuries. Because you were only thinking of yourself! Your pain! You think there aren’t things I want that I can’t have? We all lost something in the war! But we live with it!”

“Not everyone lives with it!” Draco shouted back. “Greg didn’t! Pansy didn’t! Or had you forgotten them? I’m sorry! I’m sorry I had a moment of weakness and did something fucking stupid. Have you never made a mistake in your life!?”

They stared at each other over the kitchen table, shaking with adrenalin. Draco could feel his cheeks were wet. He hadn’t said Pansy’s name since she had been murdered over three years ago. Things had been hard for Slytherins after the war, especially those who had been in Draco’s year. Greg had commited suicide only a year ago, on Christmas Day.

“I thought you were happy here, with me and Teddy,” Remus said at last.

“I wanted to be,” said Draco. “I tried to be, sometimes I even was. I tried to be someone else. But inside I’m still everything I ever was, still a Death Eater and a werewolf and a murderer. And sometimes I wouldn’t make the choice, sometimes I would take death. I wanted another option. I’ve never been able to ignore temptation, I’m not strong like you or Potter. I’m just me. I’m sorry.”

Remus came around the table and took hold of him by the scruff of the neck, but didn’t move him, just squeezed, kneading the muscles. “I’ve made mistakes,” he said. “I trusted Peter instead of Sirius. I forgot to take my Wolfsbane and nearly killed Harry and Hermione. I… I tried to leave Dora once when she was pregnant. I’m not perfect and I’m not always strong. I try to pretend I’m only a wolf once a month, but I feel it too, I fight it too.” He let his forehead rest against Draco’s. “I want to turn him, that’s what scares me most of all. That’s why I’m so angry.”

Draco put his hand on Remus’ shoulder. “It doesn’t matter what we want, it’ll be his choice. We could… we could try and find a vampire that would turn him so there’s more time.”

Remus gave a half smile. “I suggested that to Severus. He thought it would be hard to find one willing to turn the Boy Who Lived for fear of the Ministry’s wrath. But we should offer it to Harry as an option, if they come back. For all we know Australia has worked and we’re arguing over nothing.”

They got an owl from Ginny mid morning. Hermione had asked her to let them know if there was any stabilisation or improvement of Harry’s condition over that night, and to address the letter to Remus. The answer was no, Harry was no better and the people in Berlin were at a complete loss. The letter was short and hastily written, Draco could smell the tears that had fallen on it and been blotted away from view.

“I expect they’ll be back soon,” said Remus. “Severus will make sure we have time to discuss things.” He seemed calmer.

Sure enough, there was a knock on the door at two minutes past twelve o’clock. Hermione opened it without waiting for an answer and Severus carried Harry back through the door in his arms as Draco and Remus arrived in the hallway.

“Put me down,” Harry muttered, aware enough to be embarassed.

“I’ll take him,” said Draco, and lifted Harry out of Severus’ arms. He had a featherweight charm on him and Draco only had to watch his head on the walls as he took him upstairs. Harry leant his head into Draco’s shoulder and he pressed his nose briefly into Harry’s hair. He laid Harry down on the bed and removed the charm so he could settle into the mattress. He sat beside him. “Remus and I have been talking about things.”

“Has he come around?” Harry reached for Draco’s hand.

“He thought… it doesn’t have to be a werewolf, it could be a vampire...”

But Harry shook his head, squeezing Draco’s hand. “No, if I’m going to be something inhuman I want to be like you and Remus. Not like some stranger, something I don’t understand.”

“But it would give you more time before we had to decide.”

“I don’t care, I’ve had time to think too and I’ve made up my mind. It’s not such a terrible thing really, and I won’t risk the other Harry’s life waiting until the last minute. I’m not sure there’s that much time left, I can barely stay awake as it is. All I do is sleep. I want to wake up.”

Draco leant over him and kissed him, as he’d wanted to do since yesterday.

Harry smiled when he leaned back. “I’m not Sleeping Beauty, you know.”

“What?”

Harry laughed. “Guess that’s a Muggle thing.”

“I know about Muggle things,” protested Draco.

“I’m sure you do,” Harry yawned. “Kiss me again before I fall asleep.”

So Draco did, though sure enough Harry’s eyelids stayed closed when he was done. He touched his face and his hair softly. Could he really do this, turn Harry Potter? ‘Yes, oh yes, oh yes, oh yes,’ said his wolf. “Remus is right, I’d feel less guilty if I didn’t want this quite so much,” he told Harry.

“Mmmm,” said Harry, not really hearing him.

He got up and went back downstairs. They were all in the living room waiting for him, Remus and Severus were sitting next to one another on the sofa. Draco was startled by their clasped hands and he glanced at Hermione. She either hadn’t noticed or just didn’t care. He supposed it was the latter. “He’s asleep now,” he told them. “But he told me he’d decided to go ahead with tonight.”

“But...” started Remus.

“I talked to him about the vampire option, he wasn’t interested. He was very clear.”

Severus nodded his agreement. “As I said, he understands all the risks and the options. He’s made his decision.” His voice was softer than usual. “You know how stubborn he can be.”

“I want to hear it from him,” said Remus, sounding pained.

“You will. We’ll wake him in plenty of time and I’ll give him the strengthening solution so his head is clear. There’s hours yet.”

“I’m going to go to Berlin,” said Hermione. “I need to tell Ginny and Harry they can go home and explain what’s happening. I’ll wait with them until we know. Will you owl us in the morning?”

“Of course,” said Severus. “Though I doubt we will be sure immediately if it has worked as I may not be able to take any measurements overnight. But I should know by tomorrow evening. If you take the measurements every four hours the way we’ve been doing you should know yourself, maybe as early as midday.”

“I’ll floo over if there is a change, let you know straight away,” agreed Hermione. “I’ll just… go and look in on him before I leave.”

“Of course.”

Hermione headed upstairs and left the three of them behind.

“There is one thing that concerns me,” said Severus.

“What?” asked Remus.

“We don’t know how Wolfsbane effects the transmission of lycanthropy. The whole point of it is that once taken the werewolf is no longer inclined to bite anyone. If it turns out to be prophylactic, even mildly, it could prevent a sufficient change.”

Draco nodded. “I… didn’t take mine last night. I was about to drink it when the same thing occurred to me.”

Remus looked at him in shock. “But without the Wolfsbane...”

“I’ll need you to keep me in check. You’ll still be my pack leader whether I’m in control or not.”

“It’s too risky,” Remus began.

“I will be here as well,” Severus said. “This is exactly the sort of situation that I learned the animagus transformation for. And fortunately I am more than large enough to deal with any trouble. I suggest we start the evening outside then take Harry inside as soon as he has been bitten. Draco can remain out in the garden with you until the moon sets, while I see to Potter.”

“And if you are too badly hurt?” complained Remus. “A horse is big but it’s still vulnerable. James at least had antlers. And you’ve not set your animagus form against a werewolf off his Wolfsbane before.”

Severus frowned at the mention of James Potter, but refrained from making a comment about it since Remus was already under so much stress. “I will leave Draco to you, I will simply be the back up while you chase him off.”

Draco could feel the adrenaline start to pump at the talk alone. He tuned into the wolf and tried to get a feel for what was likely to happen. What did the wolf want, would it try to kill Harry? “I don’t think the wolf wants to hurt Harry,” he said. “It wants to turn him. Though it might not take well to being seperated from him after that’s done.”

“I don’t like it,” said Remus wearily.

  



	8. Full Moon

They finally woke Harry up an hour before moonrise and Remus demanded the other two leave them alone to discuss things. It was a half hour argument, but Harry refused to be dissuaded.

“You don’t have to be a werewolf to have a chance with Draco,” Remus said at last. “You do know that don’t you.”

“I need to be alive to have a chance,” said Harry. “I know that.”

Remus sighed. “I give up. Even if I said no the lot of you would just do it anyway. I know when I’m beaten. I just… I hope you don’t regret it, Harry.”

“I hope so too,” said Harry. “But as long as I have you and Draco and Teddy I’ll be all right, won’t I?”

Remus shook his head and went to open the door. “I’ll carry you downstairs.”

“I can walk,” grumped Harry.

“Save your strength,” said Remus and hoisted him up with no need of a feather weight charm.

Downstairs Draco was pacing, he looked up as they came down. “Everything all right?”

“I suppose so,” answered Remus. “How do you feel.” He put Harry on the sofa and Draco half walked over to him before walking away again.

“Edgy,” he replied. “It’s been a long time since I did this without Wolfsbane. I feel like I’ve had too much coffee. Snape and Harry should stay inside until you tell them you're ready, you should make sure I know who’s in charge before they come out.”

“I will.”

“Snape’s staying?” asked Harry.

“I mastered the animagus transformation over a year ago,” said Snape from the armchair by the fire.

Draco sat down by Harry’s feet, his knee jumping up and down as he tried to settle. He fiddled with the blanket Remus had placed over Harry’s legs. Harry sat up and put his hand over Draco’s to still it. He squeezed it, his skin felt clammy. Draco’s nostrils flared. “Merlin, you smell good.” He looked at Remus. “Shit, sorry. I didn’t mean to say that.”

“I think perhaps we ought to go outside now,” said Remus. “IThere’s only quarter of an hour to go and I suspect Draco will transform the millisecond the moon hits the horizon, possibly even a little before.”

“Yup,” said Draco, standing up. “Yup, yup.” His pupils were so wide his irises could hardly be seen.

“I’ll bang three times on the door when it’s time to come out. Harry...” he broke off, steeling himself to be practical. “I know you have to let him bite you, but we want it to be somewhere the scars won’t be easily visible so don’t just let him do whatever he wants. As soon as he’s made a solid bite do everything you can to get back in the house. Severus will get between you and Draco and I’ll draw him away. If need be try to climb onto Severus’ back. There are spells that will be helpful...”

Draco pawed at Remus, “Need to go now.”

“Go,” said Severus. “I will go over the useful spells with Potter.”

Remus nodded and led Draco out of the room, shutting the door. But as soon as it had shut it had bounced open again and Draco was back. Severus stood up, but Draco only kissed Harry quickly.

“See you soon,” he gasped, and disappeared back into the hall.

And Harry was left alone with Severus Snape to await his fate.

“There is some small pleasure to be taken from feeding a Potter to a werewolf, though not the Potter I would have preferred,” Snape noted. Harry gaped at him until he allowed a small amused smile to cross his face.

“Jokes?” spluttered Harry. “Severus Snape making jokes, now I have seen everything.”

“Gallows humour is one of the few respites of the double agent, although in the past I kept my thoughts to myself, humorous or otherwise. Would you like something to eat while we wait.”

“I don’t think I could,” said Harry. “Is there any firewhisky going?”

“I suppose that could be arranged. Only one though.”

Snape poured them both a glass and they talked over the spells that were useful to defend against a werewolf and which could be used without endangering Draco or Remus. Outside they could hear howling, but they didn’t go to the window and the curtains were closed.

“Do you know where you want him to bite?” Snape asked.

“I hadn’t, um... an arm or a leg would be safest wouldn’t it?”

“An arm could be damaged enough to be lost. A shoulder would be fairly safe, as long as we can get him to let go. It is rather close to the neck though. A leg is a lesser risk either way, especially above the knee where there is more meat and the scars will be less visible.”

“Oh God,” said Harry. “He’s going to try and eat me, actually eat my flesh. I hadn’t really thought about it that way.”

“There is time to change your mind, although I still think it is the only way to ensure you survive.”

“No, I’m not changing my mind. I’m just… appreciating the realities of my situation.”

That apparently amused Severus. “I suggest you bare whatever area you want him to bite, the sight of uncovered flesh may draw him to that point.”

“Perhaps I should smear myself in gravy,” suggested Harry, trying out some of that gallows humour.

Snape raised an eyebrow, “I rather think he prefers the way you smell now.”

Suddenly there were three scraping bangs on the door.

Snape handed him another strengthening solution. “Drink this.”

“Right.” Harry downed the potion and then stood up and began unbuttoning his jeans. “Let’s aim for a thigh then.” He left his jeans on the sofa, then toed his trainers back on. He was glad of the extra strengthening solution, despite the adrenaline he had been drooping again already. They were really doing this. His breathing was ragged and he thought this may actually have been one of the stupidest things he had ever tried.

“We don’t want him to get inside,” said Snape. “Step outside as quickly as you can, I will transform and follow. On three. One...”

Harry took hold of the door handle. There was excited yelping outside.

“Two...”

Harry tightened his grip on his wand, feeling ridiculously vulnerable.

“Three.”

Harry yanked the door open and leapt through it, taking in the immediate sight of a large dark grey werewolf holding a slightly smaller wolf on the ground by one paw and the scruff of the neck. The smaller wolf began to snarl and fight to get free as a large soft nose pushed Harry further forward. He heard the door swing shut behind Snape, and then the squirming wolf had broken free and he shot at Harry with a blood curdling snarl.

Harry fell backwards with the effort of not casting some sort of spell to force the slavering wolf away from him. This fortunately had the effect of dropping his top half under the protective legs of the large black horse Snape had transformed into. But Draco immediately seized one of Harry’s feet and tried to haul him out from underneath the horse. His teeth sank into Harry’s trainer deep enough for Harry to feel them graze his skin underneath. He kicked Draco in the muzzle with his other foot and cast a stinging hex at his nose. Draco let go to sneeze and Harry took the opportunity to pull his feet back and sit up, grabbing Draco by the head with both hands and pushing his muzzle against Harry’s thigh. Remus was at his side now and he assisted by grabbing Draco by the scruff again and helping Harry to hold him where they wanted him. Draco bucked and tried to climb further up Harry, but Remus was strong. With a sudden decisiveness the restrained wolf stopped struggling, opened his jaws wide and buried his teeth in Harry’s leg. It was more heat than pain, heat and a blinding terror at the sight of an animal of this size sinking it’s teeth into him. He saw the blood begin to well up around the beasts mouth, and then as Moony tried to pull Draco away the pain hit. His flesh was ripping, Draco was holding on and blood was starting to spurt out of the place where their bodies were joined. Snape butted Remus to stop him from pulling, Draco had hold of too much flesh; Harry, dizzy as he was, could see that. He scrabbled for his wand, everything was slippery with blood… with his blood. He was dizzy and cold and hot. He cast another stinging hex, but it only seemed to make Draco grip tighter, he could feel his rough tongue lapping at the flowing blood. He fumbled through his thoughts, then cast one of the new spells Snape had suggested at his leg, one that would make his blood taste foul. That worked, Draco let go immediately, shaking his muzzle with displeasure, and Remus had him, pulling him away. Snape immediately stepped forward over Harry’s prone body as Harry fell back onto the ground gasping. A rather unnecessary view of Snape’s low hanging undercarriage brought him to his senses and he scrambled backwards, dragging his injured leg towards the front door and leaving a thick trail of blood before him. He could hear the yelping and snarling of Moony and Draco fighting, but focused entirely on getting to the door. He bumped against it finally and reached up for the door knob. As he did there was a flurry of movement before him as Draco got away from Moony, the door gave way behind him just as Snape reared up and clocked Draco in the head with a large hoof. Harry fell backwards into the house, shouting, “Snape!”

The horse glanced back as Moony leapt on top of Draco bodily. Snape turned and trotted for the door and as he looked back to check Moony still had a hold of Draco he melted form back into Professor Snape, grabbed Harry by the jumper, and pulled him fully into the house, slamming the door shut behind them. He had no sooner cast a strong locking charm on it than a large furry body thumped into it hard. There was a loud howl of anger followed by a series of yelping barks and the sound of claws clattering on the pathway.

Harry lay back on the floor and promptly passed out.

When he came to he was upstairs in bed, his leg felt completely numb and he had a moment of panic that it wasn’t there any more. A scramble of hands quickly located the dead feeling flesh, swathed in bandages.

“I cast a nerve blocking hex on your hip, it’s an unpleasant feeling but I assure you it is better than the alternative,” said Snape. He was sitting in a chair by the bed.

“How long was I out?” asked Harry.

“A couple of hours.”

“How bad is it?”

“You won’t lose it, if that is what concerns you. The wounds are deep, but we stopped him from tearing away the flesh entirely. You have had a blood replenishing potion. The torn arteries cannot be healed by magical means, I have used a new technique to sew the wounds up. It seems to help in certain cases.”

“Mr Weasley had them try that when he was bitten by Nagini,” Harry remembered. “It didn’t work.”

“Nagini’s poison was particularly difficult to treat,” noted Snape. “Werewolf bites are less necrotising. If untreated they will still heal, just slowly.”

“And… the other?”

“You are certainly infected with lycanthropy, as to whether it has done as we hoped... I will need more than two hours to answer that. How do you feel? You woke up sooner than I expected.”

“I feel… itchy. Like something’s prickling under my skin.”

“That is a common symptom of the first phase of lycanthropic infection. The disease is working it’s way through your blood and into your cells, changing them as it goes. It will normally last about 72 hours. You should also expect bouts of nausea, hot and cold flushes, and perhaps visual auras.”

There was a loud thump from downstairs.

“Draco,” said Snape. “He is still quite determined to get inside. Fortunately the wards on the doors and windows are thoroughly unbreakable to him.”

“Won’t he hurt himself?” Harry asked.

“Most likely, but it is nothing that we can’t deal with in the morning. You should go back to sleep, this will help.” Snape handed him another potion and Harry drank it without asking what it was. Within moments he was asleep again.

When he woke up the second time there was light filtering through the curtains and there were people on the staircase, trying and failing to be quiet.

“Feel like I’ve been run over by a herd of centaurs,” Remus muttered as they reached the top stairwell. “I’m getting old. How is Draco?”

They entered a bedroom and Harry could no longer hear them. He wanted to get up and find out how they were himself, but his right leg was still completely numb from the hip down and he suspected the most he would manage was falling on his face if he tried to stand on it. He also really needed to pee. So he hoped Snape came back soon.

Ten minutes later he was still hoping and it had reached the point where hope was not going to suffice any longer. “Professor Snape!” he shouted, then louder, “Snape!”

Thankfully he heard the bedroom door open and a moment or two later Snape appeared.

“I need to pee,” he said, embarrassed.

Snape walked over to the drawers, picked up his wand, and handed it to him.

Harry looked at it. “Um… what am I supposed to do with this?”

“You are a wizard, Potter,” said Snape scathingly. “Urinate and then vanish it.”

“In the bed?” said Harry, appalled.

“Wizards only started using toilets in the 18th century, Potter. Until about 1860 they were considered an embarassing muggle fad only used by Muggleborns and Squibs.”

“I’m not peeing in the bed,” Harry retorted. “Help me get to the bathroom.”

Snape looked to the ceiling as if seeking divine intervention. “Very well.”

He levered Harry out of the bed and half carried him into the hall, with Harry’s numb leg dragging between them. Remus appeared in his bedroom doorway, looking shaky. He wore only pyjama bottoms and had long scratch marks across his chest.

“Everything all right?”

“Potter needs the bathroom,” Snape replied with irritation.

Harry could see Remus looking at his leg, the bandages were wet with blood. “I’m fine,” he assured him.

They made it to the toilet and through the awkward process of Harry trying to do everything by himself and finding out he really couldn’t. By the time they were finished Harry was thoroughly regretting his stubborness and seriously considering using the wizarding method next time.

When Snape deposited him back on the bed he snapped at him to lay still and stripped away the bandages on his thigh. Harry glanced briefly at the mess of puffy oozing torn flesh and decided that not looking was the better option. As Snape redressed the wound it occurred to him that despite the many unpleasant feelings plaguing him, he was awake and he didn’t feel any particular need to go back to sleep.

“How are my test readings?” he asked.

“All over the place,” said Snape, casting the diagnostic spells anew to look. “But your magical energy has not dropped significantly since yesterday evening.”

“And that’s good?”

“That is… better, but until we know if the same can be said for your other half it is not a definite answer. The lycanthropic process draws magic into it to sustain the takeover of your body, it may be artificially inflating the figures.”

“You know a lot about werewolves, huh?”

Snape gave him a scathing look. “I have a Mastery in Defence Against the Dark Arts with a speciality in Dark Creatures.”

“And yet you’re back teaching Potions?”

Snape glowered at him. “You must be getting better, you are significantly more annoying than you were yesterday.”

“I was asleep most of yesterday.”

“My point exactly.”

Harry made a face. “How is Draco… he wasn’t too badly hurt was he?”

“Very little that couldn’t be healed by magical means. I gave him a sleeping draft to make sure he rested. He will have a few new scars, but nothing serious. I’ll wake him for dinner this evening.”

“Can I get up for dinner?”

“No you cannot. You should not have been up at all, it will slow the healing of your leg. This is not a normal injury and you cannot treat it as one.” Harry pouted and Snape rolled his eyes. “You are quite insufferable, I have no idea what Draco sees in you.” That made Harry smile. “You will behave yourself or I will confiscate your wand and bind you to the bed, Remus is finding this all difficult enough without you extending your healing by insisting on walking around.”

Harry smiled even wider. “You really care about him, don’t you?”

Snape refused to answer that and swept out of the room. Next time Harry needed the bathroom he gritted his teeth and did as Snape had suggested. It was fairly unpleasant, but better than Snape helping him take off his underwear.

As it happened Draco came up to eat with Harry in his room since Harry couldn’t come downstairs. Hermione had been and gone that afternoon with the news that this world’s Harry was comfortable in Grimmauld Place, with rising magical levels and feeling much better. The only person not satisfied with the evening’s work was Remus, but he was doing his best to appear as positive about the outcome as Draco and Harry clearly did. He had spent some time with Harry, promising that he would do everything in his power to make things easy for him, and looking sad and guilty. Harry wished he wouldn’t feel responsible for something that wasn’t his fault and looked to have saved Harry’s life.

“Did Remus ask you what you wanted to do about the Ministry?” Draco asked from further away than Harry would have preferred. He had seemed skittish around Harry since he had woken.

“What about the Ministry?”

“We were talking about it downstairs. Remus and I are registered as werewolves, but you don’t even exist officially, and what we did was incredibly illegal. Severus thinks we should just keep you hidden, but I thought… well you probably don’t want to spend the rest of your life trapped in here pretending not to exist.”

“I suppose not,” agreed Harry. “Although I could think of some positive sides to being trapped here with you.”

Draco looked surprised at that, then flustered, his cheeks going pink. “I… ah… I wasn’t sure how you would feel about that after I nearly tore your leg off.”

“You did what I expected you to do, besides it wasn’t you. Do you even remember it?”

“Sort of, I don’t forget as much as Remus does if he’s off the Wolfsbane. But the memories don’t store the same, there’s no words and even the way I see things is different when I’m fully turned, so it’s mostly just feelings and smells and… tastes.”

“You remember the way I tasted?”

Draco nodded. “I remember... wanting.”

“Wanting what? To eat me?” Harry joked a little nervously.

“No… not that,” Draco flushed redder.

Harry frowned then understood. “Oh!” He looked at Draco, startled. “Would you have… done that? If Snape and Remus hadn’t been there?”

“I think so. Tried to anyway. Pretty messed up, huh.”

“No offence, but I’m glad you didn’t.”

“I don’t want to hurt you,” Draco tried to explain. “But the wolf, it’s violent. You’ll see when you start to feel yours. It doesn’t care if it hurts people as long as it gets what it wants.”

“Will I be like you or like Remus?” Harry asked.

“Hopefully more like Remus, although there’s no need to repress it as much as he does. There are advantages to being able to access some of the wolves abilities. I can help you with that if you like.”

“I would.” Harry put his plate aside. “Will you come over here and sit with me?” he asked hopefully.

Draco came to the end of the bed. “Are you sure?”

“Don’t you want to?”

“Where should I sit?”

“Here.” Harry patted the bed to his left, shifting awkwardly to make a little more room.

Draco sat down, his hands in his lap. “Severus said it might be over a week before you can try walking,” he said guiltily.

“You had to bite deep to be sure the infection took.” Harry took one of Draco’s hands out of his lap and brought it onto his chest. “We knew it would take time to heal. It could hardly have gone better. One good bite, no danger of dying and no other injuries.” He put his hand to Draco’s jaw and drew his fingers down the scar there. “I wasn’t too afraid, I knew Remus would protect me.”

“All the same,” said Draco. “I’m sorry I hurt you.”

The looked at each other, each thinking their own thoughts, until Harry said, “I don’t much mind, when it’s you.” He touched Draco’s mouth with his fingers. “Will you kiss me?”

Draco bent over him and let their lips touch gently. Harry pressed his hand against the back of Draco’s neck and kissed back harder. It was Draco who pulled away. “I can’t, not right now. It’s too close to the moon still and you’re hurt.” He stood up.

“Don’t go yet,” said Harry.

“I ought to, I’ll take our plates down.”

“No, not yet. I need to know...” Harry reached for words. “This is our chance, I want to know that you’ll take it with me. I thought I couldn’t have this… with you. I need to know if I can.”

Draco took a deep breath and came back to sit on the bed. “I thought I couldn’t have this with anyone,” he said. “I’m still not sure I can… you saw what happened the other night… I’m not entirely in control.”

“I don’t believe you,” said Harry. “I never told you to stop. I think I could have got you to stop, if I had tried to. Which I didn’t.”

“You shoudn’t have to,” said Draco in exasperation. “I should have realised… I would have realised if I had been… just me.”

Harry smirked. “If I remember correctly, and I do, just you was a self centered prick who probably would have assumed no one would want to turn down Lord-to-be Draco Malfoy. It probably would have taken a right hook to get through that kind of smarmy self confidence.”

Draco looked annoyed. “I’m not him.”

“No, you’re not. But you used to be, and I still fancied you rotten. Don’t put who you are now down… I think you’re pretty great.”

Draco looked embarassed. “Maybe you just have terrible taste in men,” he muttered.

“Maybe. Tell me we can try. Tell me you want to try.”

“I do want to, of course I want to. But I’m not sure how Remus will feel about it.”

“Remus is not in charge of my love life,” retorted Harry.

“Don’t be so sure of that, once the wolf has fully grown in you he’ll be your pack leader, the same way he is mine.”

Harry frowned. “What does that mean?”

“It’s hard to explain. He can’t just tell me what to do, but I want to please him, and if he disapproves or gets angry it feels awful. I can stand up to him, but it’s scary to do it. It’s a thousand times better than having Greyback as my pack leader though. Remus hardly ever pulls rank, and when he does it’s often unintentional. But he was really angry over what happened before, he nearly threw me out.”

“It was bad timing,” said Harry. “He caught me at the worst moment. I’ll talk to him about it, make it clear how I really feel.”

“And how do you feel now?” Draco asked cautiously.

Harry smiled nervously. “I wanted us to slow down, but the more time I have to think about that night, the more I… kind of want to do it again, only without the surprise factor.”

Draco swallowed noticeably, his hands clenching slightly. “The way you smell drives me crazy,” he said finally. “I really do have to go, for the sake of my own sanity.”

“All right then,” said Harry. “But come back again later, it’s boring up here.”

“All right.”

Draco left and Harry quickly slipped his hand under the covers to adjust his swelling cock. He was tempted to have a wank, but he wasn’t sure if he would be left in peace long enough. Sure enough, not long after Draco had departed Snape arrived to check on him.

“Your appetite has improved,” he noted.

“I was ravenous, I could have eaten twice that.”

“That is not unexpected. You can eat again in an hour or two.” He cast the usual diagnostic spells and nodded in satisfaction at the results. “With the figures Miss Granger gave us to back things up, I think we can safely say you are out of danger.”

While the final reassurance was nice, Harry had been sure that was the case since he had woken this morning. “Draco said there might be a problem with the Ministry?”

“Given how recognisable you are, questions are bound to be asked if you leave here,” replied Snape. “Draco broke the law by turning you.”

“He saved my life.”

“That will be difficult to prove.”

“So we don’t tell them I’m turned.”

“There will still be the difficulty of having two Harry Potter’s wandering around.”

“We may as well just tell them the truth about that, well minus the whole Draco cast a spell bit,” said Harry. “I’m not hiding away here forever and it’s not like I can go home.”

“We have time now, it is possible a return method may be found.”

That made Harry falter. Did he even want to go home? “I don’t want people to waste their time looking for something that can’t be found,” he said cautiously.

“I suspect it will be no hardship for Miss Granger, she is clearly taken with the subject. Personally, I do indeed have better things to do. But if you go public with your existence there will no doubt be others wanting to study the matter, the Department of Mysteries will be first in line. Which is why remaining quiet about your lycanthropy is pointless, with so much interest pointed your way it would certainly be noticed.”

“Then I’ll say I was already a werewolf before I came through, they can’t prove I wasn’t, can they?”

“Right now they could, but once you’ve gone through your first full moon it will be impossible to tell exactly how long ago you were turned.”

“So we’ll come clean then and I’ll say I got turned before I arrived here. I can wait, it’s not like I’m going to be running around for a while yet.”

“Indeed.”

“I was going to ask, can you take the nerve block off? I know it’ll hurt, but I don’t like not being able to feel it at all.”

“That is what I came up here to do. And yes, it will hurt. Take this first.” Snape handed him a painkilling potion. After Harry had swallowed it Snape stripped away the blankets without warning. Harry blushed, but Snape ignored any remnant of an erection he had, focusing only on the dressings. “I will change the dressings first, then take away the block,” he informed him, and did just that. The feeling in Harry’s leg returned like pins and needles from the top down, with only a mild ache and a prickly heat in the area of the bite. “The painkiller will last for several hours,” Snape told him. “I will leave another to be taken tonight if you wake up in need of one, but as you can only take two doses a day I recommend putting up with the pain for as long as you are able.”

“You’re going back to Hogwarts?” Harry guessed.

“Correct, I have classes to teach. I will send Madame Pomfrey to check on you tomorrow evening, I’m sure she will not mind and my services are certainly no longer required.”

“Thank you,” said Harry. “I know we’ve never exactly got along, but I want you to know I appreciate your help, now and… before.”

If anything Snape looked annoyed at the thanks. “I do what I must,” he said dryly.

“I think my Mother would have wanted us to get along,” Harry blurted out.

Snape froze. He cleared his throat before he replied, “Perhaps.” Then he left as quickly as he could while still remaining dignified.

Harry wiggled his foot as he wondered if he should have kept his mouth shut on that topic. His toes itched and he scratched at them with his other foot. His skin pulled unpleasantly as he moved his leg, but it wasn’t really painful.

The door opened again. “What did you say to Severus?” Remus asked mildly. “He shot out rather urgently.”

“Sorry,” said Harry. “I… um… mentioned my Mum.”

“Ah.” Remus came in. “Did he get a chance to take the nerve block off?”

Harry nodded. “He gave me a painkiller though, so it just itches and feels weird.”

Remus nodded, hovering uncertainly.

“I wanted to talk to you actually,” said Harry.

“Oh?” he sat down on the chair, pulling it up to the bed.

“Draco was worried about what you would think if we… wanted to try and work things out.”

“Hmm,” Remus frowned. “I’m not going to try and tell you what to do, but I can’t help but be concerned after what happened before.”

“But that’s just it,” said Harry insistently. “I was having a shaky moment, and I already wasn’t well so that probably made me more upset than I would have been. I needed to talk to him about what happened, that was all. You just came by me before we had the chance to do that. If you’d already been in bed I’m sure I’d have sorted things myself before you even knew anything had happened. And the last thing I wanted was for you to yell at Draco about it. I didn’t need you to do that. I mean, I get it that you thought it was the right thing to do, but I’d really appreciate it if you would let it go now. Cause I really like him.”

“And if he gets carried away again? You can’t be sure that he won’t.”

“Maybe I don’t mind if he does,” said Harry. “Besides, I can look after myself, despite appearances to the contrary. I did defeat a Dark Lord you know.”

Remus smiled. “Hard to forget. I will tell Draco that as long as he is careful I will… stand down, as it were. But I will be keeping an eye on you two and if I think anything is amiss we will be talking again. Also Teddy will be home the day after tomorrow so, although I’m sure it goes without saying, you will make sure to behave yourself in his presence.”

“Of course,” said Harry.

Remus stood up. “Why do I suddenly feel as if I have three children in my house instead of one.”

 


	9. An Unfortunate Rescue

**10 days ago on Earth 2**

“I’m not saying that you’re not trying, I’m just saying that maybe it’s not the right job for you.” Hermione stalked in the front door with Ron trailing behind her.

“It’s all right though,” said Ron. “I mean it’s a job.”

“I just don’t think you can approach being an Auror like that,” she said, hanging up her coat. “It’s vocational, like being a teacher or a healer. You need to really want to do it.”

“Lots of people...” Ron stopped talking as Kreacher suddenly popped into being at the foot of the stairs. “What’s he doing here?”

“Kreacher?” said Hermione.

The old elf looked distraught. “Master Harry is dead, he said. “But Kreacher cannot find his body.”

Hermione and Ron stared at him. “Harry’s not dead,” said Ron finally.

“Master Harry is dead,” Kreacher repeated firmly. “Kreacher felt him go over an hour ago and came to see to the body.”

Hermione pushed past the little elf and ran up the stairs shouting, “Harry! Harry!”

“Why would you say that?” said Ron angrily.

“House elves know when their Master is passing,” Kreacher told him. “Kreacher is owned by Master Edward now.”

Ron went pale and ran up the stairs after Hermione.

An hour later they had searched the entire house twice and Hermione had tried and failed to send a Patronus message to Harry. Her otter had just sat next to her looking confused when she had told it to find Harry.

–

Kreacher set the large teapot on the table, the meeting comprised of Hermione and Ron, Luna, Bill Weasley, Ginny, Neville, and Draco Malfoy.

“This place is vile,” said Draco, looking down his nose at the faded wallpaper of the drawing room. “If I had to live here I’d probably kill myself too.”

“Harry didn’t kill himself,” said Hermione calmly, she’d been fighting this theory for two days now and it didn’t scare her quite as much as it had at first. “I brought you all here to tell you what we do know, so I suggest you keep your theories to yourself until you hear what Luna and I have to say.”

Draco gave Luna a scathing look, but everyone ignored it. They were all used to Draco’s bullshit by now, and they knew he didn’t really mean it. Mostly.

“Here are the facts,” continued Hermione. “Harry disappeared from Kreacher’s awareness just before 5pm two days ago. Unable to sense Harry anywhere he assumed he was dead. Kreacher arrived at his last known position within a minute of his disappearance. There was nothing unusual to be seen at that time. Ron and I arrived home around an hour later and searched the house. The only things we noticed missing were things Harry would usually have on him; his wand, his trainers, his glasses. None of his other stuff, things he might take if he was going away for a bit, were gone. So we have to assume he didn’t leave intentionally. But there was no sign of a struggle, so he was either taken by surprise or whomever took him cleared up any mess before doing whatever it was that made Harry vanish from Kreacher’s awareness.”

“Like killing him and vanishing the body,” said Draco.

“Shut up, you,” growled Ron.

Hermione gave Ron a small smile and gestured to Luna. “If you’ll continue from here, Luna.”

Luna smiled at them all. “Hermione asked me to come and take a look because she knows I sometimes see things in a different way. I was fascinated when I came to the spot we believe Harry vanished from. A large cluster of creatures I have named Tardibumpkins was visible through my spectrascopes, just inside the doorway to the bedroom that used to belong to Harry’s godfather. Although nobody else has been able to see them, Bill found that there was some very strange magical energy in that area and we believe it may be caused by a very tiny interdimensional rift.”

Draco snorted indelicately. “Look, I was happy to help out with a bit of information on some of the less savoury members of our society, but do I really have to be here for this codswallop?”

“Oh, yes, Draco,” said Luna. “As the only one of us with Black ancestry we were hoping you could help us find out if there’s a history of unusual occurances in that room. It may be the rift has always been there or it may only have appeared two days ago, but if it has been open before your ancestors may know how to deal with it.”

“Surely Aunt Andromeda would be better placed to help you?” Draco argued. “I’ve never even been in this house before.”

“I thought you and Harry were friends now!” Hermione said in exasperation. “Why must you always be so difficult, don’t you want to find him?”

Draco looked a little chastened. “Fine, I’ll ask my Mother,” he said sulkily.

“So we have several avenues of investigation,” said Hermione. “On the assumption that Harry was somehow drawn through this rift, Luna and I are going to look into how to pull him back through. Bill is going to help us with some of the research, but obviously he needs to be back at Hogwarts for the start of term, so he’ll mostly help from there. Neville, Ron and Ginny are going to keep looking into the possibility Harry was kidnapped and is being hidden in some way that even Kreacher can’t penetrate. Draco will look into the history of the Blacks and also continue to keep an ear out for any talk from the old Death Eater circles, or what remains of them anyway.”

“To the extent that I can,” grumped Draco. “You do realise they’re all mostly dead or in Azkaban, and those that were unimportant enough to avoid those two things keep themselves to themselves these days. After what happened to Pansy you can hardly blame them.”

There was a moment of awkward silence. While Pansy hadn’t exactly been their favourite person, everyone had been horrified when she had been murdered. The culprits had been several family members of dead Hogwarts students who knew her only as the girl who wanted to turn Harry Potter over to Lord Voldemort. They had been out drinking and bumped into her alone on Diagon Alley, heading home from a late shift. As she was still on probation at the time, she had no wand. She hadn’t stood a chance.

“Sorry,” said Draco. “I didn’t mean to...”

“It’s fine,” said Hermione. “We’re all on edge. I know you’ll do what you can.”

Draco nodded and left the table. “I have to get going anyway, I’ll let you know what I find out.”

–

It had been ten days since Harry had vanished, and not once had Hermione doubted that he was still alive. She could feel it in her bones. She and Luna had been working on the rift non stop. With Harry officially reported missing she had taken compassionate leave to focus herself entirely on what she considered the most logical option. That the tiny magical rift in Grimmauld Place was directly related to Harry’s disappearance. And they were finally ready to get some real answers.

It was a Sunday evening, and Bill Weasley and Professor Flitwick had spent the weekend at Grimmauld Place to help them with the final preparations to try to open the rift up from it’s current miniscule proportions to something large enough to fit a person through. Hermione had planned to go herself, but Ron had made a very convincing argument that he was better suited to grabbing someone, bodily if necessary, and she was better suited to rescuing him if something went wrong with the rift.

Hermione checked the straps on the harness they had transfigured. “Remember you’ll only have fifteen minutes before we’re pulling you back no matter what, and if we think anything might be going wrong we’ll tug three times and you have to come straight back through.”

“Don’t worry Hermione,” said Bill. “I’ll drag him back fast enough if need be.”

“Tap the harness and say return if you need to get back in a hurry,” she added.

“I know, ‘Mione,” Ron protested. “You’ve only told me all this a hundred times.”

“Let’s just hope that was often enough, then,” said Draco with a smirk.

“What are you even here for?” snapped Ginny.

“I always wanted to watch Weasley get sucked through a vortex in space and time,” said Draco.

Ginny glared at him.

“All right everyone, less arguing, more attention,” said Bill. “You ready to start the incantation?” Hermione, Luna, and Professor Flitwick nodded. “Then let’s do it.”

Bill readied himself to begin paying out the magically reinforced rope attached to Ron’s harness as Hermione and Luna began the incantation to open the rift and Professor Flitwick prepared to brace it open long enough for Ron to travel through it and back again.

“Bloody hell,” muttered Ron. “We’re really doing this.”

“You did volunteer,” said Ginny.

“Yeah, well. That’s cause ‘Mione was going to chuck herself through it otherwise. Couldn’t let her do that, could I.”

“Buck up,” said Ginny. “You probably won’t die.”

“You might get trapped in another universe though,” said Draco hopefully.

“Oh fuck off,” said Ron. Then there was a sudden rush of air and something strangely unseeable rippled wide in front of him. He took a deep breath and jumped through it. There was no real sensation, just a wobble around him and then he landed back on the floor facing into the same room, only utterly transformed. But he had no eyes for that, because right before him in a large double bed lay Harry. “Mate!”

Harry opened his eyes, then reached over for his glasses. He peered at Ron in apparent confusion. “Ron?”

Ron raced forward, feeling the rope move behind him. “Mate! You’re really not dead!”

“Um, no. I’m much better,” said Harry.

Ron grabbed him and pulled him to his feet. “Where’s your wand?”

“It’s right here,” said Harry picking it up from the bedside table.

“Brilliant!” Ron grabbed Harry in an unexpected bear hug, tapped his own wand against the harness on his chest and shouted “Return!” With a yank and a wobble of reality they were both hauled through the invisible rent in reality which collapsed in on itself behind them with a satisfied belch.

Ron landed on the mattress they had positioned in case of a hasty retreat, clutching a pyjama clad Harry Potter to his chest, the sound of cheers ringing in his ears as Hermione threw herself at the two of them. “You did it! You got him!”

“Hermione?” said Harry. “What’s going on?” He untangled himself from the two of them, looking around. “Where am… this looks like Grimmauld used… Gin? What the fuck is going on?!” He sprang to his feet staring at Ginny in utter horror. “Ginny… the baby?!” He stepped towards her, his hand reaching out towards her flat stomach.

“Harry?” she replied, stepping back uncertainly.

“It’s okay Harry, you’re home,” said Hermione.

Harry looked wildly around him. “Oh bugger, no.” He looked behind him, waving his arms at the empty space just by the door. “What did you do? Hermione said it wasn’t possible.”

“We brought you back, Harry,” said Hermione. “Do you understand what happened?”

“You idiots,” he said, turning to her. “I’m not your Harry.”

Hermione’s face took on a look of horrified comprehension. “Oh! Oh no.” She turned to Ron. “Did you not check?”

“You didn’t tell me to check anything, you told me to grab him and bring him home!”

Hermione’s face turned red, for Ron was quite right. It hadn’t occurred to her that if Harry was in another dimension, that dimension might also have a Harry. “I’m so sorry,” she said. “I’m sure we can just...”

“The rift is gone,” announced Luna.

“What?” said Hermione.

Luna lifted up her spectroscopes. “When they came back through the rift sealed up behind them, all the way. There’s nothing left. Not a single Tardibumpkin.”

They all stared at her in horror.

“Well, congratulations on your monumental cock up,” said Draco. “I’ll leave you to your awkward silence, I have a cake tasting to get to.”

Some time later, after they had tried several times to reopen the now completely undetectable rift, Professor Flitwick finally called a halt to the proceedings. “I’m very sorry to say that it appears the imbalance of having no Potters in this universe and two in the one the rift led to seems to be all that was keeping it in existence. It has been a most interesting experiment to be a part of, and I look forward to the paper we will no doubt publish on the topic, but I fear there is nothing more I can do here at the moment, and I have classes to teach tomorrow morning. Professor Weasley, will you be coming?”

Harry frowned at Bill.

“Yeah, I suppose I better,” replied Bill, looking torn. “I’ll have another go at the Hogwarts library tomorrow.”

“Snape was helping out in my world,” said Harry. “Can you ask him to help?”

Bill looked startled at the suggestion. But it was Hermione who said carefully, “Professor Snape died during the war, Harry.”

“Oh, right. I heard things were different here, but I didn’t really ask much about what had changed. Look, no offence, but you lot don’t really seem to know what you’re doing. I think I’d like to bring in the Aurors, I mean you did kidnap me, and I know you’re my friends… sort of. But you’re sort of not as well.”

“We need to talk to Kingsley anyway,” said Ron morosely. “He thinks Harry’s just missing. We’re going to have to come clean. He’s going to fire me for sure.”

“You work at the Ministry?” asked Harry.

“Yeah.”

“You work with George in my world,” said Harry.

“At the shop?”

“Yeah. You didn’t want to come back to Hogwarts with me and Ginny, and you didn’t want to join the Aurors without me, so you said you’d help out there for a year and then you never left.”

“Huh,” said Ron thoughtfully. “I must have liked it then.”

Hermione came back from seeing Bill and Professor Flitwick out. “It’s pretty late,” she said. “Why don’t we just get some sleep and we can talk about who we tell and what we do now in the morning. Kingsley won’t thank us for calling him into the office at this time.”

Harry looked at Ginny. “Do you live here too? I mean I know you’re not with him, the other me. But you at least still live here, right?”

“I live in Holyhead with my team mates,” said Ginny looking startled.

Harry looked disappointed. “But you’ll stay tonight won’t you.”

Ginny looked uncomfortable. “I suppose, I mean I’m not due in until Tuesday.”

“Great,” said Harry enthusiastically.

“I’ll stay too if you like,” said Luna.

“Um… sure,” said Harry.

“Good idea,” said Ginny, nervously relieved to be sharing a room with Luna, as they had last night. It had been a long time since she and Harry had broken up, and it had broken her heart when he had turned her down after the war, but she had gotten over it.

“Fine,” said Hermione. “Well, I don’t know about you lot, but I’m wrung out so I’m going to bed.”

“All that magic was very tiring,” agreed Luna.

“I suppose I can sleep in here,” said Harry, peering at the slightly mildewed covers.

“Oh no, don’t do that,” said Hermione. “This place hasn’t been cleaned in years. Harry slept in Regulus’s room, you should stay there.”

“This was my room,” said Harry. “Mine and Ginny’s.” Ginny blushed and made herself scarce, tugging Luna with her like a human security blanket. “We cleared the whole house out and redecorated before the wedding so we could move right in.”

“When did you get married?” Hermione asked, unable to escape her curiosity.

“It’ll be our second anniversary in June,” he replied, still looking at the bed. “Ginny’s pregnant,” he sounded accusing. “So you better get me back soon, she’s due in three weeks.”

Hermione bit her lip and said nothing.

Ron took her by the hand and led her out of the room.

–

In the morning Ginny found that she couldn’t avoid Harry forever, used to being up early for training she entered the kitchen before seven to find Harry already there drinking coffee. Not wanting to make a big deal of it she tried to pretend she wasn’t thrown by bumping into him and poured herself some coffee from the large pot on the side.

“You look different,” said Harry. “Your hair is shorter.”

“It’s easier to deal with this way when I’m playing,” she replied.

“Yeah,” said Harry. “I remember. You had it short before the wedding.”

“Why did we start a family so young?” she asked, it had been playing on her mind all night. “What about my career?”

Harry shrugged, looking a little shifty. “We agreed it was better to have children young, that way we’d see our grandchildren and great-grandchildren. You played three seasons, and it’s not like you can’t go back in a year or two.”

Ginny narrowed her eyes at him, clearly unconvinced. Having this Harry here, who apparently had never broken up with her, made her feel unaccountably angry.

“Why did we break up?” asked Harry. “I never met the other Harry so I never got a chance to ask him why his life was so different from mine.”

Ginny frowned. “It wasn’t so much that we broke up as that we never got back together after you left Hogwarts to, you know, save the world. I went back to Hogwarts for seventh year and you joined the Aurors with Ron. I wasn’t entirely surprised, there had always been something a bit awkward about us. I wanted it to work, I really did, but I knew it wasn’t. You didn’t… um… you said you didn’t seem to find me… um… look I’d rather not talk about it. It was a long time ago.”

“Sorry.”

“Why did you get back together with her, the other Ginny.”

“It was what I always planned to do,” said Harry, looking bemused. “That’s why I find it so strange it never happened here. It was great to be able to go back to Hogwarts and have a real final school year, like normal teenagers, just like my Mum and Dad did. I proposed the summer after we finished, but you wanted a long engagement so we didn’t get married for a while. I focused on work while you played for the Harpies and then once I made full Auror we got married and you moved into Grimmauld Place with me.”

“And we were happy?”

“Yeah.”

“I’m not sure I’d have been happy with that,” she said. “I’m not saying I wanted us to be apart, but I have a lot of stuff I want to do. I can’t imagine having kids now, the England team’s been scouting for new players and my coach thinks I’m in with a chance of getting picked. I’d miss out on all of that if I got pregnant.”

Harry shrugged. “Well, I guess it’s a different universe. It’s like I said last night, you’re my friends… but you’re not. I don’t really know you.” He paused. “Was that Malfoy I saw last night? He looked different too.”

“Yes. He wasn’t much help, but we figured he’s kind of a Black so you never know. And you two were friends so he was worried, not that he’d ever admit it.”

“Friends?”

“Yeah, I guess. I’ve not been about much so I’m just going on what Hermione’s said and the odd letter from Harry. Personally, I think he’s an arsehole.”

“Remus says he’s not like that any more, but I can’t say I ever noticed much difference. Doesn’t it bother your Harry that he’s essentially raising Teddy?”

“What?” said Ginny. “Remus… Professor Lupin?”

“Malfoy lives with him doesn’t he? Or is that different here?”

“Professor Lupin died in the war, are you saying he’s still alive in your world? And Snape? Godric, that must be weird. What about...” Ginny took a steadying breath. “What about Fred?”

Harry looked apologetic. “Fred was killed in the Battle of Hogwarts.”

“Right. Yeah. Same here.” Ginny swallowed and considered beating a retreat. Fortunately Hermione appeared before Harry asked anything else.

“You two are up early,” she commented.

“I’ve spent the last five days in bed, the last thing I need is more sleep,” said Harry.

“Why’s that?” asked Hermione.

“I was sick, cause of your Harry. Him being in my universe was killing us both, something to do with splitting the magical energy we could access or something. I was pretty out of it, so I don’t remember the fine details. We’d only just fixed the problem when you went and yanked me through here. We didn’t think it was possible to do that.”

“If Kreacher and Luna hadn’t helped us find the left over rift I don’t think it would have been,” said Hermione looking worried. “It gave us a place to start, we just had to stick a magical lever in it and yank it back open. So to speak.”

“And now it’s closed completely,” said Harry, picking up immediately on the implication.

“Yes.”

“You think I’m stuck here,” he accused her.

“I didn’t say that. I just think we need to look at other options for getting you back, what we did before just isn’t enough.”

Harry looked dissatisfied by the answer. “I want to go in to the Ministry today, do I still work there?”

“Yes, in the Auror department.”

“Perfect, then that’s where I’m going. If you want to help sort this all out, you can come with me, but so far all you’ve done is make things worse.”

Ginny had heard enough. “Harry Potter you take that back! What Hermione and Luna did was incredible. They opened a rift between universes to save you and just because it didn’t work out quite the way they planned doesn’t mean you get to act like an arrogant git about it. We have been worried sick about Harry for over a week, not knowing if he was even alive!” She realised she was prodding her wand at him, but decided not to put it away. If he said one more stupid thing she’d bat bogey hex him and damn the consequences.

“Ginny,” said Harry placatingly.

“Don’t you Ginny me,” she snapped. “You’re a guest here, so act like it.”

“Ginny,” said Hermione. “Thank you, but it’s fine. We did kidnap him after all.”

“Accidentally,” said Ginny. “And we’re going to do our best to fix it. So he can stop being a prick about it.”

“Right, yes, sorry,” he said.

“And he can apologise to the person he insulted.”

“Yes.” Harry turned to Hermione. “I’m sorry, that was uncalled for. I’m just feeling a bit… unsettled by it all.”

“I understand. And I really am very sorry too, and so is Ron. We didn’t stop to think that this kind of mix up might happen. We had no idea what another universe would be like and we were really just focused on getting Harry back. It’s as frustrating for us, we thought we had a way to get him back, and now it’s gone and he’s still stuck there!”


	10. Putting Down Roots

**Back on Earth 3**

The owl from Hermione came in the morning along with breakfast. Remus opened it absent mindedly and then stopped still with his food half way to his mouth. He put his fork down and flattened the letter on the table to read it more carefully. “Harry has gone missing,” he said finally. “Hermione wanted to know if there was anything unusual we had noticed, anything about our Harry or just anything at all. She says she’ll come by when she can either way, but please reply straight away.” Hermione’s owl hooted her agreement to that. He and Draco bolted upstairs, despite the fact they had both checked on Harry once already this morning.

“I haven’t noticed anything odd,” said Harry after reading the letter. “Well aside from all the weird turning into a werewolf stuff, which could mask all sorts. My skin itches, I get hot flushes. When I woke up this morning everything looked like it was covered in glitter for about half an hour and right now everything smells like metal.”

“That’s all pretty normal,” said Draco. “From what I remember. I was pretty sick through most of it thanks to the giant bloody hole Greyback left in my chest.”

“What do you think happened to him?” Harry asked Remus. “Do you think it’s something to do with me?”

“I don’t know,” said Remus. “If it is I don’t know in what way. I suppose I better go and write back to Hermione, I’ll let her know you seem fine.” He headed back downstairs.

Draco sat down on the bed. “Whatever’s happened to him, I hope they leave us out of it. We’ve had enough excitement already this month.”

Harry smiled. “I could do with a few weeks of peace and quiet until I heal up and go though my first change. I know I have to think about getting back home, but it’ll probably take ages to figure that out so, yeah, a month off would be brilliant.”

“Sounds great, can I lie down?”

“Sure.”

Draco shoved the covers about and made himself comfortable along Harry’s side, snuggling his face into Harry’s neck. “You smell good. Let’s hide up here for a bit.”

“Not like I have much choice,” commented Harry, more than happy to snuggle for a bit.

–

**Earth 2**

“Let me get this straight,” said Kingsley. “Harry wasn’t kidnapped, he was sucked through a magical hole into an alternate dimension. But you told me he had been kidnapped because...” his tone was dangerously flat.

“Er… just seemed the best option,” said Ron. “I mean the whole magical hole into another dimension seemed a bit far out, so I suppose we thought you might think we’d gone a bit mad. And he might have been kidnapped. It just turned out he hadn’t.”

“And now he’s back… except he’s not back?” Kingsley eyed Harry.

“I’m from the other universe. And I was kidnapped, although I’m not pressing charges,” said Harry. “I understand it was an accidental kidnapping, but I’d like your assistance, or rather the Ministry’s assistance, in getting home.”

Kingsley looked deeply irritated. “The Auror department already has several seasoned Aurors working on the kidnapping of this universe’s Harry Potter, I’m not sure they’ll be much use when it comes to alternate dimensions. Are you sure you’re not all just Confunded or something? He looks like the same Harry Potter to me.”

“That’s because I am Harry Potter! But I don’t belong here, and I need to get back to my wife,” retorted Harry. “If I miss my own child’s birth Ginny will have my head.”

Kingsley gave a rumbling sound of irritation. “Go home, the lot of you. I’ll speak to the Aurors and the Department of Mysteries and sort out a team to work with you on … whatever this is. In the meantime you will attempt not to cause any more trouble and not to let news of this spread any further than it already has.” They made sounds of polite agreement and began to leave. “Mr Weasley, a moment more of your time.”

Ron paled and stayed behind as the other left. When he came out ten minutes later he looked thoughtful.

“What did he want?” asked Hermione.

“I’ve been put on probation for not telling the department the truth about what was going on,” Ron answered, not sounding that concerned about it.

“It’s just a formality though, right?”

“No,” said Ron. “He said I should use the time to consider whether I really wanted to be an Auror. Which made me think about what you said about the other me,” he nodded to Harry. “About how he worked with George. They wanted to buy out Zonko’s, but they would have had to sub let it cause it takes both of them to run the Diagon Alley shop. If I took over from Lee in Diagon he could go up and manage Zonko’s.”

“It sounds like you’ve already been thinking about it,” said Hermione.

Ron shrugged, embarassed. “Lee’s been trying to talk me into it for a year or two. George isn’t up to running a shop on his own, he still has days when he’s not much good for anything. Lee thinks it would do him good to work with family. But I couldn’t just leave Harry in the lurch, and I was worried I might not be any good at it. I mean I’ve not made much of an Auror.”

Hermione hissed in annoyance. “You and Harry! I swear you’re both determind to drag each other to the bottom of the heap. You don’t have to stick to a plan you made when you were fifteen and didn’t know what else to do with yourself.”

“He’s my best mate,” Ron protested.

“That’s no excuse.”

Harry rolled his eyes, it sounded like Ron and Hermione bickered just as much in this reality as they did in his.

As they walked through the atrium Draco Malfoy arrived and passed them, giving Harry a once over and a sly smirk. Since Ron and Hermione weren’t paying attention Harry turned to watch him pass. He wore a long black fitted cloak that somehow managed not to hide the lines of his body at all and made his pale skin and hair gleam in contrast. His pulled back braid bared the line of his neck and the few soft fine hairs curling too short to be caught up in it. Harry hadn’t seen Draco look this put together since the start of sixth year, it looked good on him.

–

**Two months later (still on Earth 2)**

This was the fifth full meeting of the Multi Dimensional Issues Committee, also known as MuDI (pronounced Muddy). As the Department of Mysteries newest Unspeakable, and the new Head of the Ministry’s also new Interdimensional Task Force (consisting of Hermione and a single research assistant, who was currently sitting at her left to take the minutes), this was Hermione’s first meeting as Chair. She surveyed the rest of the table; to her right sat Harry, newly instated as a full Auror after a month long trial period had seen him sweep the open cases board almost clean, and now the Committee’s main Auror representative. He brought with him two Junior Auror’s, one his own replacement after fully taking over his own case. The final two members were a Ministerial assistant reporting directly back to Kingsley and Draco Malfoy, representing the Wizengamot. Hermione really had no idea what he was doing on the Committee, as his only input seemed to be sarcasm and a sartorial elegance that may dazzle the rest of them, but did nothing whatsoever for her. Even Harry seemed won over by him, much as their original Harry had been. She swore Malfoy was flirting with him, though what he thought he was going to get out of it she really had no idea. The whole point of this Committee was to send Harry back to his home reality. Something that they were no nearer accomplishing today than they had been the day they had come clean to Kingsley, and that Hermione was beginning to suspect nobody was terribly invested in anymore. Not even Harry.

“So then I promised him that he’d be the first in line to trade cauldrons interdimensionally, as long as he agreed to vote for my amendment to clause 29 of the bill,” Malfoy finished smugly.

Harry roared with laughter and everyone else followed suit, much to Hermione’s irritation. “I think it’s underhand to imply there’s ever going to be any such thing as interdimensional trade,” she said snippily.

“I don’t know,” said Malfoy. “We did manage a fine trade in Potter’s.”

He actually had the gall to wink at Harry, who had the nerve to grin back. “I don’t think that’s funny,” said Hermione. She glanced over at her assistant and saw all of this was being conscientiously recorded in the minutes. “Oh, for Merlin’s sake, don’t write all this rubbish down.”

–

“Should we ask Ron if he can take lunch now?” said Harry, glancing down Diagon toward Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes.

“Oh Salazar, no,” moaned Draco. “I have you all to myself and you want to invite Weasley? Too cruel.”

“Fine, fine. No Ron.”

“Why don’t we order takeaway,” Draco suggested slyly.

“I thought you had booked a table.”

“I can unbook it.”

“I don’t know...”

Draco stepped into him and steered them into the shadow of a building. “Come on Potter, we have time and you know I’ll make it worth your while.” He ran a hand down Harry’s arm on the side passerbys couldn’t see from the street. “Besides, you have no appreciation for fine food.”

“I do have some more refined tastes,” Harry replied, with a gleam in his eye.

“So you do,” said Draco, and Apparated them back to Grimmauld Place. They landed in the newly decorated Master bedroom, where Draco immediately backed Harry against the dark blue velvet drapes of the imposingly large bed. “I for one greatly appreciate your improved décor.”

“I should think so,” laughed Harry. “After all you picked most of it.”

“I have impeccable taste,” agreed Draco before kissing him.

Harry responded enthusiastically, allowing Draco to push him back onto the matching silk sheets. “Mmm, so you do.”

Draco pulled away and stood up. “Clothes off, now!” he ordered.

“Yes, sir,” Harry said teasingly as he began to strip himself quickly of his uniform.

“And mine,” said Draco, pretending to be unmoved by Harry’s hasty nudity. He held out his arms and looked away as if Harry were a barely tolerated manservant.

Harry bounced off the bed, his cock already firm, and began to unfasten Draco’s clothing. “This would be quicker if you didn’t wear such complicated suits,” he whispered in his ear.

“You love my suits.”

“Maybe.” Harry stuck his hand inside Draco’s underwear and squeezed his cock. “I love your cock more.” He stripped Draco’s trousers off. “Seriously, longjohns?”

“They’re a cashmere silk mix,” sniffed Draco. “They’re very expensive and I get cold. It is winter.”

“It’s March you ponce.” He pulled the offending underwear down over Draco’s shoulders and they dropped to the ground.

Draco stepped out of them and glared at Harry. “You are an uncouth oaf. Now get on the bed, hands and knees.”

Harry grinned and climbed onto the bed, arching his back to push his arse high. “Come on then, Lord Malfoy,” he said over his shoulder. “Show me the error of my ways.” Draco smirked and cast a quick set of charms. Harry shivered, “No relaxation charm? Hope you’ve had your manicure this week.”

“No relaxation charm,” said Draco slapping Harry’s arse. “And no fingers either, perhaps that’ll teach you to be less cheeky.”

“Oh I doubt it, but you’re welcome to try. More than welcome.”

Harry wiggled his arse and Draco slapped it again, hard enough to leave a mark. Then he took Harry firmly in both hands and pressed his thumbs into the globes of his arse, pulling them apart. His cock was already slick with magically summoned lubricant from the bottle in the bed side table and he pushed the head against the tightly furled hole. He felt Harry press back against him, breathing out to try and relax himself more. He pressed in slowly, knowing Harry could take it. He had been equal parts pleased and disappointed to discover this Harry was well versed in the art of being fucked, although at least he had still had the pleasure of being the first man to have him.

Harry groaned in the mixed pleasure pain of being penetrated without being stretched. He liked being taken like this, liked having to really work at it, the way Draco’s cock felt enormous at first. He also found he liked the forbidden nature of it all, the secret meetings, the public teasing. He didn’t feel guilty though, he hadn’t given into Draco’s very clear offers until he had enough reason to believe he was stuck here for good. He knew Ginny wouldn’t expect him, or want him, to remain celibate on the hope of some miracle.

Later on they lay in bed eating pizza. “How did you manage to make the house visible to Muggle delivery men and no one else?” Draco pestered.

“Trade secret,” said Harry.

“But you can tell me,” Draco cajouled, pouting.

“Ha!” said Harry. “Not a chance.”

“Tough guy,” said Draco. “I love it when you won’t give in to me.”

Harry stuffed one last slice of pizza into his mouth and sat up properly. “I need to get back to work.”

“Bad guys to catch, worlds to save,” opined Draco. “I’ll stay here and eat pizza, thanks.”

“Oh, you will, will you.”

“If I go to the flat anyone could find me and make me get up and do things.”

Harry laughed. “Lazy sod.”

“Guilty as charged. Can I come by Saturday after dinner?”

“Won’t your parents wonder where you’re going?”

“They don’t care where I’m going as long as nobody suspects anything, and I can trust you of all people to be discreet.”

“Is that why you sweet talked your way into my bed?”

Draco smirked. “Oh, Potter. As if I needed any other reason than the divine curve of your arse.”

“Is it so much more divine than my predecessors?” teased Harry, flexing said arse as he pulled up his trousers, knowing full well just how impressive his body was.

“I can only presume, never having exposed said arse to my detailed scrutiny.”

“And why not?”

“He wasn’t like you, he would have made things too complicated. I was tempted though. He used to make moon eyes at me in the pub,” Draco sounded nostalgic. “He would have bent over for me as sweet as anything,” he said, miles away. “And then he would have expected me to break off my engagement for him.” He came back to earth with a rueful half smile. “Which, as you well know, is not an option.”

Harry shrugged as he buttoned his shirt. “Who am I to lecture you, I’m already married.”

“Do you miss her?”

Harry frowned, sitting down to put his shoes on. “Sort of. I miss living with her, you get used to not sleeping alone. And I wish we’d let them tell us if the baby was a boy or a girl, I hate not knowing. But I know she’s fine without me, she was always independent, tough. A lot like she is here. And as it turns out, I’m fine without her too. That I wouldn’t have guessed. I suppose it’s not been long, maybe it’ll hurt more as time goes by. I used to go away for work, sometimes for as long as a month, and she used to go away with the team, so we’re kind of used to being away from each other.”

“You could always marry her again, she is single isn’t she?”

“I don’t think so. I mean yes, she’s single, but I’m not going to try and get back together with her. It would be weird. That would be like cheating, somehow. How did we even end up talking about this?” Harry leaned over and kissed him. “I’ll see you on Saturday night, make sure you’re gone before Ron gets back.”

“Hmph,” said Draco. “I can’t wait till they move out.”

–

**Meanwhile on Earth 3**

“Can I hold him?” asked Harry.

“I don’t see why not,” said Ginny, offering up the tiny dark haired baby, now almost five weeks old.

Harry took him carefully. “James,” he said, his face splitting with a wide happy grin. His second full moon had been three nights ago, they had decided to give it two before risking his revelation. But before they went to the Ministry, Harry had asked to visit Ginny and the baby boy that he couldn’t help but feel was half his. “James Arthur Potter,” he said fondly.

“He looks a lot like you did at that age,” said Remus.

“His eyes are turning brown,” noted Ginny. “And Mum thinks she sees freckles on his nose, but I think she’s imagining them.”

“I’m sorry,” said Harry.

“For what?”

“About your Harry.”

“It’s not your fault,” said Ginny.

“It feels like it is.”

“You always did have an over evolved sense of responsibility.”

“Is it hard? Looking after the baby on your own?”

Ginny shrugged, tucking her newly trimmed hair behind her ear. “I don’t suppose it’s really that different. Harry would have been at work most of the time. Mum’s been helpful, I swear she’d take him right off my hands altogether if I’d let her.”

“I’d like to help too, if I can. I mean, if you don’t mind,” said Harry, still staring spellbound into James’ eyes.

“You really are staying then?” asked Ginny.

“Yes,” said Harry firmly. “Even if they could find a way back, I’d stay here.”

“But there is no way back anyway, not any time soon, if ever,” said Ginny. “That’s what they tell me. That if that’s where my Harry is, then they have no idea how to get him back. Even Hermione admits it’s true, although she always follows it up by saying she’ll find a way.”

“I really am sorry,” said Harry again, finally looking up from the baby.

Ginny smiled. “Harry lands on his feet. I think he is there, because if he was in this world still he’d be back by now to see his son. He’s in your world, making a place for himself I hope. I’m not going to waste my time wishing for things that aren’t going to happen, and I hope he doesn’t waste his life trying to get back here. I have a feeling that maybe you’re both where you’re supposed to be.”

“But he’s your husband...” said Harry. “I mean, you love him, don’t you?”

Ginny smiled. “Yes, I love him. And if he came back here I’d be very happy to see him. But I learned a long time ago not to waste my life sitting around waiting for Harry Potter to make me feel special. I can be just as happy without him as I can with him. And I have James now, and in a few months I’ll be able to go back to work. Wasn’t your Ginny happy without you, in your world?”

“Yes,” said Harry. “She was.”

“Well, there you are. And to tell the truth, Harry wanted me to take at least a year off for James, so in some ways I’m glad to avoid that argument. I can’t wait to get back in the air.”

“I can look after him,” Harry repeated. “Whenever you want.”

Ginny smiled. “I think I would like that.”


	11. Contact

**Seven Years Later – Earth 3**

They had decided to come in as a family, somehow it made Harry feel less nervous. He had never been comfortable with the continued research into dimensional travel, a tiny part of him was still afraid that he would suddenly be whisked away, back to where he had come from, just as unceremoniously as he had been transported here. It was James’ first trip to the Ministry, and Harry had a good firm hold on his hand to prevent escapes. James was exceptionally good at escaping. Draco was carrying Scorpius, who had claimed he was too tired to walk any more. What he actually meant was that he didn’t want to go to the Ministry, he wanted to go to the Pet Emporium.

They took the elevator down to the Department of Mysteries. Harry had been here often enough in the last seven years that he was largely immune to the old chill that had used to fill him on visiting there. But it was definitely far from his favourite place, stuck in the basement of the Ministry and full of bad memories, inexplicable things and people who liked to poke and prod at him as if he were an interesting specimen rather than an actual person. Hermione was waiting outside the main door for them, a welcoming smile on her face.

“Hi, Aunt Hermione,” James called from half way down the hall.

Hermione waited until they were a little closer before replying, “And good afternoon to you too. It’s lovely to see you all.”

“Lo,” said Scorpius, sticking his face in Draco’s neck and pretending to be shy.

“Come on through then.” Hermione ushered them into the circular room of doors and closed the main door behind her, setting the room spinning.

“Wow,” said James, impressed.

“Where’s your Mum off to just now? I owl’d her a couple of days ago, but I haven’t had a reply yet,” Hermione asked him, assaying the wand movements to locate her own department so swiftly they couldn’t follow them.

“’Merica I think,” said James, tugging on Harry’s hand with his desire to take off and throw himself into danger.

They followed Hermione into the relative safety of the Department of Dimensional Research, or the Dimension Room as most people called it.

“She’s in the States for three weeks,” said Harry. “I can call her on the mirror if you need to speak to her?”

“Let’s see how we go today first,” replied Hermione.

Hanging on the walls and standing around freely were a great number of mirrors, each labelled with a string of numbers and runes. James tried to peer into them as they strode past towards Hermione’s office.

“There’s a lot more here than last time,” Harry commented. It had been almost three years since he’d last been asked to come in.

“We had a bit of a break through a while back on locating new dimensions,” said Hermione. “We haven’t gotten a visual on a lot of them yet, but we have the mirrors ready for when we get the tuning right.”

“But that’s not why you called Harry in,” said Draco.

“No,” said Hermione. They entered her office. “We’ve had a much more relevant breakthrough, one directly related to Harry’s original dimension.”

“Can I look at the mirrors while you talk?” asked James.

“Absolutely not,” said Harry, closing the door to the office firmly. There were already two chairs in front of Hermione’s desk, Harry waved his wand and conjured a third. “Sit there.”

James sat down with a sulky look, he hadn’t come to the Ministry of Magic to sit in a boring office with his boring Dads and his boring Aunt. Harry and Draco sat down too.

“Tea?” asked Hermione.

“Can we just get down to what you’ve found out?” asked Harry a little anxiously.

“All right,” said Hermione. “We’ve been able to see into your original dimension for years now, but all we could see was the room we have the mirrors in. Which in your dimension appears to be a small storage room. As you know we couldn’t move the mirrors because the spells we were using to make the connection were tied to the room the mirrors are in and it had taken us years to construct them so we couldn’t just move them somewhere else. Never mind the risk of having more than one source of instability… anyway, never mind that. A few months ago we began to have some success in tethering the mirrors to the room’s dimensional instability field so that they could still access it from elsewhere. We’ve been watching your dimension from a variety of places, limited by distance still and by the need for secrecy of course. We told Ginny about this a while ago, because... we’ve found our Harry.”

Harry’s breath caught in his chest. “He’s there?”

“Yes, he works in the Ministry, so once we started viewing your world from other floors we found him quite quickly. He’s the Head of the Auror Department. Ginny came in to view him, but I asked her not to tell anybody yet.”

“You’re talking about my other Dad?” said James suddenly.

Hermione started. “Um,” she glanced at Harry. “Yes. I didn’t know you were going to bring the children along today...”

“It’s fine,” said Harry, he had known for a while this might happen. “James, would you like to see your other Dad sometime?”

“I suppose,” said James. “I mean, he’d look just like you wouldn’t he? You’re the same person.”

“We’d look very similar, yes. But we’re probably quite different people,” said Harry. “Because we’ve lived different lives.” He turned back to Hermione. “Could he see him sometime?”

“Of course… though we have to be careful, we don’t know what people might be doing until we look in on them and… ah… sometimes they might be doing something... private, as it were.”

She was blushing, and Harry wondered what she had caught his other self doing. Masturbating in his office, or perhaps screwing his secretary. He wondered if she would have told Ginny if that were the case. Of course Ginny had had her fair share of relationships and flings over the past seven years, so he supposed she probably wouldn’t have been upset. She had never settled down with anyone else though, he wondered if the other Harry had, or if he had spent all this time trying to get back home to his wife and son. The son Harry had essentially stolen from him. What if all the assumptions they had made about him being fine had been mistaken and they had been getting on with their lives while he had been fighting tooth and nail to get back?

“I’ve booked us an hour upstairs in…” Hermione cast a Tempus, “Twenty minutes. But I was only expecting Harry. There’s something we want to try and we need him there for it. We’re certain he’ll be in his office then, hopefully alone. We want to try and make contact.”

“What?!” said Harry, alarmed.

“That’s why we called you in, we think we can use you to tune the mirror enough to create a two way channel. Not something a person could travel through, but enough to send an image and maybe even a voice through.”

Harry just sat there looking shocked. Talk to his other self? They had never met aside from that brief panicked encounter in Harry’s first moments here.

“I’m not sure this is a good idea,” said Draco. “If you create a link between the two of them, who’s to say it couldn’t cause them to switch back?”

“Oh, it really couldn’t,” said Hermione. “We understand so much more about the area than we used to. The amount of energy required to open a full rift is immense, it just couldn’t happen accidentally.”

“Except that it did,” said Draco sharply.

“No,” said Hermione. “It didn’t.” She glanced at James.

“He knows about the spell that brought Harry here,” Draco said. “We told him last year.”

“Exactly then,” said Hermione. “You cast a spell, and the spell you cast was very powerful. What we’re doing doesn’t compare in magnitude or in type, it’s largely arithmancy and charms, no wild magic. There was an aspect of sacrifice in the spell you cast, both in the blood you used and in the possibility that the spell could take your life. That gave it enormous scope. You already know we think that power sustained the rift that took our Harry back through it before vanishing, so really all the travel came from that one spell. The worst that could happen in our little experiment is that it simply might not work. Well, there could be some very mild physical side effects, but nothing more than you might get from a rough portkey journey.”

“Like what?” asked Harry.

“Dizziness, maybe a headache or nausea.”

“But you don’t really know, not for sure,” said Draco.

“We’ve tried tuning the mirrors ourselves, to talk to our own alters,” said Hermione. “I’ve done it myself, but we can’t seem to get through. I got a bit of a headache, but that was all.”

“You’ve seen Hermione!” said Harry, suddenly startled with the desire to know how everyone was. It was so easy to forget all the people he had left behind when their alters were all here with him, and for the most part nearly identical. “And Ron too?”

“Yes,” she said. “And they both seem well. They rather usefully live in the same house as we do here, so we can view them quite easily. Your Hermione is doing something very similar to what I’m doing, but they seem to be concentrating on trying to open an actual portal, we didn’t see any mirrors. And we don’t think they’ve succeeded yet.”

Draco reached out and grasped for Harry’s hand, two Hermione’s in two universes both trying their hardest to relink them.

“I’m not going back,” said Harry, gripping Draco’s hand.

“Are they going to send my other Dad home?” asked James. “Where will he live? With Mum or with us?”

Harry’s nostrils flared and he just about crushed Draco’s fingers. “I think we should be going,” he said. “We’ll have to book another time to try your experiment.”

“Harry...” started Hermione.

But Harry had already stood up, pulling Draco to his feet too. “Come on, James. Why don’t we go back to the joke shop and buy that thing you wanted, what was it?”

“A Rocketing Rainbow Drop! Can we really?” James sprang to his feet, immediately distracted by the possibility of being able to shoot twenty feet in the air while farting rainbows.

“Why not,” said Harry.

–

They didn’t speak about any of it until both boys had been put to bed that evening, but the subject had lain tense on both of them all the rest of the day. Harry came down from the third floor slowly, counting the steps. He remembered creating this staircase when they had added the third floor to Remus’ once small cottage. That had been almost six years ago.

Ginny had offered to give him Grimmauld Place since it was so big for just her and the baby, but he had refused it. That Grimmauld Place belonged to her and the other Harry, he preferred the cottage anyway. She had insisted on transferring a sizeable amount of her Harry’s money into a new vault for him though, and given him both the Marauders Map and his Father’s Cloak, along with a lot of other things that he had owned in his own reality. He had promised back then that he would give them all back if the other Harry came home, and back then he had wanted that to happen. But now… James had very quickly ended up living with Harry and Draco the majority of the time. Ginny considered him in loco parentis for her Harry and so they had joint custody, but she was away a lot and busy with team practices even when she was home, and so James spent not much more than a quarter of his time with her in Grimmauld Place or at The Burrow. He didn’t want James’ real Father back, the idea of losing his son terrified him.

He entered the vast new living room they had built into the extension on the side of the cottage and slumped down onto the sofa next to Draco.

“Did he say anything?”

“I asked him if he would like it if his real Dad came back and he said he supposed it would be okay, but he already had two Dads and he didn’t need another one. Although he supposed he’d get more presents on his birthday and at Christmas.” Harry tried to laugh, and instead started to cry.

“Hey,” Draco pulled him into his arms. “Hey, don’t cry. James loves you.”

“I know,” Harry managed. “I know he does, but he’s only seven. If his real Dad comes back...”

“Shhh.” Draco stroked Harry’s hair, tugging him until he was sitting on his lap. “You’ll never lose us, I promise. We’re pack. You and me and James and Scorpius and Teddy and Remus. Even Severus, though he’d glower at me and claim otherwise.”

Harry sniffed into Draco’s hair. “James wanted to know if he’d have to stay in London more if his other Dad came home. I said I didn’t know, but that he probably wouldn’t be home any time soon. I don’t want him to come back, why can’t Hermione just leave it all alone!”

“Because she’s built that way,” soothed Draco. “And because she needed to be sure he was okay. And because she’s a massive pain in the arse.”

Harry poked Draco in the side. “Hermione’s lovely.”

“Not when she makes you cry she’s not,” Draco retorted.

“She’s trying to do the right thing.” Harry sighed. “And I’m being a selfish git.” He sat up and leaned back against the arm rest, his backside sliding down onto the sofa so that just his legs were draped over Draco’s lap. “I better owl her and apologise for running out, and for not asking if it was okay to bring the kids.”

“Owl her tomorrow. She should have told you sooner they were this far along with everything instead of dropping it on you all of a sudden.”

“Do you think she’s right, that it’s not possible to open a rift?”

“I think it’s entirely possible, we’ve already proven that. And if the other Hermione’s working on it too, I’d say it’s as good as inevitable. But that doesn’t mean it’s going to happen tomorrow, and even if it did it doesn’t mean you’re going to lose James.”

“But things wouldn’t be the same.”

“No, but that’s how life is. Things change. Like Teddy going away to school. That was hard, but we survived it.”

“James will be going too soon.”

“In four years, Harry. That’s hardly soon.”

“Sometimes it feels like Scorpius only just came along, and that was nearly four years ago.”

“You’re going to be morose this evening no matter what I say, aren’t you?”

“Yup.”

“Fine, you do that then. Are you going to do this experiment Hermione wants you to do?”

“I suppose I have to.”

“You don’t...”

“I do. This is his universe, if there’s a way for him to speak to us, to Ginny and James, I need to help.”

“Bollocks to him,” Draco muttered. “He was an arsehole and I bet he still is.”

–

**Earth 2**

Harry was buried in his usual Thursday afternoon routine of catching up on all the paperwork that had built up since Monday. He didn’t like paperwork, but he had managed to keep on top of it since being made Department Head last year by ruthlessly setting aside two afternoons a week to do nothing else but. He balanced that by working at least one decent case out of the office every week. Efficiency kept his weekends free, barring emergencies, and he liked to have his weekends free. This weekend he and Draco were taking Scorpius out all day Saturday in return for Astoria freeing Draco up to spend Saturday night and all of Sunday at Grimmauld Place. Harry liked Astoria, she wasn’t the jealous type, she wasn’t even that bothered about propriety as long as they didn’t upset Scorpius. Draco was the one who was uptight about the family name. He was always after Harry to find himself a woman to attach himself to so that people wouldn’t wonder who he was dating or why he spent so much time with Draco, but Harry really couldn’t be bothered. He had someone he loved and he wasn’t willing to live the kind of double life Draco lived. He still wanted children, but he’d figure that out later. He was still in his twenties, there was plenty of time.

He rubbed his forehead with his free hand, squinting at the paper before him. There was a strange tension to the air, as if there was a storm brewing. It was giving him a bit of a headache. As he scribbled in his usual messy handwriting he became aware of a hissing sound, like radio static. He looked up and shot to his feet, grabbing his wand. In the middle of his office was an apparition. A hazy looking image of himself, dressed in casual muggle clothes with hair that curled long over his ears and neck. The vision waved a hand at him and moved it’s mouth as if it were speaking. The static noise came again.

Harry stepped cautiously around his desk. “Hello?” The other him looked off to the side and seemed to be talking to someone completely invisible. Harry stared at his mouth, trying to read his lips. Then a sheet of parchment was passed to the figure and he read it to himself then turned it around and held it up. Although written backwards it read, “Can you hear me? I can’t hear you.”

Harry turned back to his desk and quickly scribbled his own message to hold up. “I can’t hear you. Who are you?”

The next message read, “I’m the Harry you swapped places with.”

He simply stared at that, and then at the Harry Potter before him. for a long moment. Contact with his home universe after so long. Hermione had said they had noticed some funny fluctuations over the past few months in what she called the MuDi Field. The other Harry stared back, letting his message drop down in one hand. Finally Harry turned around and wrote out another longer message. “How is Ginny and the baby? Do you know how to get back here? Are you planning to bring me back there?” He held it up, his stomach in knots.

The other Harry disappeared and Harry stood there, unsure what to do. Hermione, he should tell Hermione. He sent his patronus to fetch her and as it disappeared through the door the other Harry reappeared with a long reply that he had to step closer to read as it was in his own messy handwriting. “Ginny is fine, she called the baby James and he is fine too. We don’t know how to do anything but this, but we might be able to get sound soon so we can talk properly.” Just as he had finished reading he realised the vision was lifting up something else for him to see, a wallet sized photograph of three boys. The one on the left had untidy black hair, hazel eyes, and a light sprinkling of freckles on his nose. He looked a lot like a happier, healthier version of the little boy he had seen long ago, looking on tiptoes into the Dursley’s bathroom mirror. Harry already knew that he must be seven years old, or perhaps six if the photo was old. The boy on the right was very clearly Teddy Lupin, looking very much as he did now. The boy in the middle was much younger, maybe three, and was very blonde, but with green eyes the same colour and shape as Harry’s. He looked oddly familiar. They were all hugging. Harry pointed at the unknown boy and mouthed clearly, “Who is that?”

The vision looked uncomfortable and tucked the photo into his pocket. He reached out for a quill, which appeared in his hand as if handed by someone else. He wrote on the back of the current message then turned it around. “James’ half brother, Scorpius.”

Harry felt a swarm of confusion and surprise. Scorpius was five, and had blue eyes like his Mother, Astoria. Yet, now he was named, this younger boy was clearly some version of Scorpius, but a version that had Harry’s eyes. Harry scribbled his own message back, “Scorpius is Draco Malfoy’s son?”

The vision nodded and said what looked like, “Yes.” He looked away, shifting his feet. Then he was handed another sheet of paper, written in the same handwriting as the first two messages. “We have to go now, we will come back tomorrow at the same time?”

Harry had just puzzled the backward writing out when the vision began to fade and he quickly nodded his head for them to see before he was alone again in the room.

–

The next day at 3.30pm, when the other Harry was hopefully due to return, he was not alone in his office. Instead he was surrounded by Hermione, her team from the Department of Mysteries, and all of their paraphernalia. They had been parked in his office since 4 o’clock last night, taking measurements and who knew what else. Harry had turfed his second out of her office so he could have somewhere to actually do some work, and she wasn’t best pleased about it.

At 3.45pm the vision finally swam into place, growing from a single point in roughly the middle of the space it occupied as if it were slowly Apparating into place. It seemed slightly more solid this time, but still very much two dimensional. When it’s mouth moved the static came again, but this time there was more shape to the noise. Between the movement and the odd consonant like noises, it seemed like he was saying, “Can you hear me now?”

“Not really,” said Harry back, enunciating his words clearly as if talking to someone slightly deaf while wobbling his hand to indicate sort of. Hermione looked startled and stepped closer to him, peering at the space he was looking at.

The vision nodded and mouthed, “Same here.”

“Hermione is here,” Harry told the vision. The vision frowned and he repeated it again, slower.

“Where is he,” said Hermione, stepping on his toe as she tried to look as much from Harry’s point of view as possible. “Is he talking?”

“She can’t see you,” he said.

The vision replied. “Hermione is here too. We can see you, but only you can see me.”

“He says only I can see him,” he told her.

“You can hear him too?” she asked.

“Sort of, it’s still mostly static, but I can figure it out.”

“Can you show him a message from me, like you did before?”

“Don’t see why not, write something down.” Hermione stepped away and he spoke to the vision again. “The little boy.” The vision looked nervous again. “Is he yours?” Harry asked.

He saw the vision understand his meaning. The reply was short. “Yes.”

Then he had a son with Draco, or rather his other self did. He knew it was possible for two wizards to have a son. Magically complex and difficult, but possible. He had done the research himself, though he had never had the nerve to mention it to Draco. It was far outwith the scope of their relationship, or at least in this universe it was. But it had happened, a little boy that was half him and half Draco. Knowing for certain was more of a gut punch than he had expected. He had two sons, and they were both out of his reach.

“Harry?” said Hermione, putting a hand on his arm. She was holding a parchment with a long message, but she looked worried. “What’s he saying? What little boy?”

“He has a son,” said Harry, not looking at her.

“Really!” Hermione sounded startled but pleased. “That’s wonderful, I mean if he has a son, he must be happy, he must have settled down. Oh, tell him about Rose!”

Harry turned to her, angry suddenly. “What about your message,” he said, yanking it out of her fingers to read it quickly, it was full of technical questions. He held it up for the other Harry to see, not looking at him. He wished Hermione and the others weren’t here.

“What’s wrong?” Hermione whispered to him.

“Nothing,” he hissed back.

“It’s not nothing,” she insisted.

“Not now,” he pleaded, finally looking at her.

She met his eyes and then nodded. “Is he replying to the message?” she asked, business like.

  



	12. Making A Decision

The rest of the session he acted as a go between for the two Hermione’s on either side, seeing his own turbulent anxiety mirrored in his other’s face until he finally blinked out again. He walked out of the room as soon as he was gone, heading for the privacy of his second’s office. He had let her work the afternoon from home in recompense for the inconvenience. He had only had time to lower himself into her chair before the office door was reopening and Hermione was stepping in.

“Now will you tell me what’s wrong?” she asked.

Harry sighed and decided to just tell her. “His son’s name is Scorpius.”

“Scorpius? Like Draco’s boy?”

“Exactly like Draco’s boy, because he is also Draco’s boy.”

Hermione made a face of startled comprehension. “He and Draco.”

“Yes, your Harry and my reality’s Draco. He’s younger than our Scorpius, three or four I think.” Harry scrubbed his eyes. “I need a drink.”

“Are you going to tell Draco?”

“I don’t know.”

“You know that with this breakthrough, it’ll bring us much closer to being able to send you back...” she said uncertainly.

“I figured.”

“You don’t sound very excited about that.”

“I don’t know what I am. I’m tired, and confused.”

“Do you love him?” she asked quietly.

“What?”

“Draco?”

Harry stared at her. “How long have you known?”

“A long time. I wasn’t certain until that time we all went on holiday.”

“What a nightmare that was,” said Harry. “What were we thinking?” It had been a nightmare. Three couples plus Harry, George and Ginny, in a not nearly large enough mansion on a not nearly large enough island in Greece. Ron and Hermione started arguing on the journey out and barely stopped the entire time away. George and Draco had close to murdered one another, resulting in George going home three days early. After which Harry and Ginny had got into such a massive row that they hadn’t spoken for five months until Molly Weasley had forced them to make up over Christmas. Astoria had been pregnant with Scorpius at the time, and she had simply lain under an umbrella by the pool, reading romance novels and ignoring the lot of them aside from to order Harry or Draco to fetch her things. “Was it Astoria ordering me around?” he asked.

“A little,” said Hermione. “But it was mostly you sucking Draco’s cock by the hot tub.”

Harry’s face went red. “We thought everyone was asleep.”

“Ron kept kicking me, he said it was the heat making him restless. I think I had about three hours of sleep a night that week. I cast Petrificus on him at one point just to get a few more hours in. Any way, I came out for some air and there you were. Astoria knows, doesn’t she?”

“Yeah, they had an arrangement from the start. Besides, you know I wouldn’t go behind someone’s back like that.”

“And you do, don’t you? Love him that is. That’s why you never really wanted to go home.”

“I have a son there, two sons in a way,” Harry replied. “Of course I want to go back.”

Hermione mused over that, then finally said, “No, you think you should want to go back. It’s not the same thing. You’ve barely read any of the reports I send from my Department in the last few years, never mind come to any of the meetings.”

“Draco reads them, and goes to the meetings. I don’t understand the theoretical stuff anyway and I do have my own considerably bigger Department to run.”

“Draco comes to my meetings because he’s in love with you too, and he wants to keep an eye on whether we’re any where near achieving anything. He argued to cut our budget at the last finance session. He’s been trying to do that for years now.”

Harry glared at her. “Don’t make assumptions about how we feel. You don’t know anything about it.”

Hermione pursed her lips and changed the topic. “Fine. We’re going to start work on creating a dimensional mirror like the one they’re using. We think it’ll solidify the connection if there’s one on both ends, enough for anyone to be able to communicate through, and hopefully to get the sound to travel.”

“I want some time on my own to talk to him.”

“We have no control over that on this side, you’ll need to sort it out with him later.”

“Fine.”

Hermione left him to it and went back to work. But at the session that evening she let him have a few minutes alone at the start, before they began message passing. When the vision finally winked out again, looking as drawn as Harry felt, he told everyone he was done until Monday and that next week he most certainly wasn’t spending this much time being a message boy in his own office when he had his own work to do. Hermione may plan to spend the weekend working on the information she had gathered, but he had other plans.

When he Apparated to Wales on Saturday morning to meet up with Draco and Scorpius he could barely force a smile onto his face, he had been restless all night.

“Hullo, Harry,” said Scorpius.

“Hi, Scorpius,” Harry felt his cheeks protest the fake grin. “Looking forward to the match?”

“I want to look for shells,” he replied. “And build a castle.”

“He’s a bit more focused on the beach than on the Quidditch,” said Draco. “Go on then, you can go ahead down the path,” he told the eager boy. “But stay on the dry sand till we get there,” he called after him as he shot off like the very rabbits that had made the path they stood on. He turned back to Harry. “Now, what’s got your knickers in a twist?”

Harry sighed and glanced around quickly before taking Draco’s hand. They had chosen this beach because it was Muggle and well off the beaten track at that, but they were in the habit of being cautious and the last week had made him even more aware of the precarious nature of what they had. “The Harry that belongs here has found a way to contact us.” He felt Draco’s hand twitch in surprise at the unexpected news.

“When? How? What did he say?”

“Thursday. Through some sort of magic mirror my reality’s Hermione cooked up. And he said… he has a son, over there.” Draco frowned over the information as they walked slowly down the path, slipping their hands apart till only their pinkies were linked. It was less obvious should Scorpius come running back. He was still too young to be burdened with keeping the secrets of grown ups, so as far as he knew his Father and Harry were just good friends.

“That will be awkward I suppose, if Hermione manages to open the rift she keeps claiming is possible. So far the only thing going into that rift is galleons. Does he want to bring this boy back through with him then, if she manages it?” Draco’s tone was nonchalant, but Harry knew him too well to be fooled by it.

“I don’t know. We… didn’t really talk about him coming back.”

Draco spotted the implication. “You think he wants to stay there?”

They were climbing over the dunes that led to the beach now, but Harry didn’t unhook their fingers and neither did Draco. “Yes, I think he does. I didn’t ask him, but it seemed that way to me.”

“I suppose you ought to be able to tell, he is you after all. More or less.”

Harry took a steadying breath. “His son is called Scorpius.”

Draco stopped dead on the brow of the dunes. Ahead of them they could see Scorpius crouching down by some seaweed, poking at it. “What?”

“He’ll turn four in September. His Father is Draco Malfoy.”

Draco turned to face Harry. “You said you didn’t get on with your Draco Malfoy.”

“I didn’t. Apparently he does. And they had a son, together, whom they live with.” Harry hammered the point home, almost baiting Draco with it.

“Well,” said Draco, turning away again. “I suppose once you’re a werewolf it doesn’t matter what else you do. It’s not like he could have sired a Malfoy heir either way.”

“Right,” said Harry, hating how bitter he suddenly sounded. He pulled his hand away from Draco and half strode half slithered down the dune and onto the flat sand, feeling the fine grains fill his shoes. He kicked them off angrily, tore off his socks, and stalked away heading for the sea.

“Harry,” he heard Draco call after him.

He ignored him and walked until he was standing in the cold waves. His trouser legs sucking salt water half way up his calves. This was ridiculous, his life was ridiculous. He was in love with someone whom he could never have a real relationship with. Never share a house with, never have a child with, never even hold hands in public with. When back in his own reality he had a wife and a son of his own. He looked at his left hand. He hadn’t worn his wedding ring in a long time, there wasn’t even a tan line from it any more. It was sat in the bottom drawer of the desk in his study. He should go home. He didn’t belong here.

“Harry?” said Draco cautiously from behind him.

Harry didn’t answer.

“I know I’m not … what you wanted. But if it means anything, I don’t want you to go back.”

“I’m not sure it does mean anything,” said Harry flatly. “I’m sure you can find someone else to fuck on the weekends.”

“Harry,” Draco sounded hurt, he stepped close so that he could keep his voice low. “Please don’t do this. You know this isn’t just about fucking, that it hasn’t been just that in a long time… perhaps not ever.”

Harry turned around, he could see Scorpius standing watching them from a line of seaweed that he had clearly been ordered not to cross. Harry looked into Draco’s familiar grey eyes. “Do I?” he asked. “Do I know that?”

“I’d be fucking lost without you,” Draco hissed. “You’re what makes it all worth doing. The bullshit and the pretence and the politics. You’re what keeps me going, you and Scorpius.”

It just made Harry angrier. “But I don’t give a damn about it, the lying and the secrets. I hate it! It was fun for about six months and ever since then it’s just been a shitty reason to keep me at arms length. No one cares except you!”

“That isn’t true, that isn’t even slightly true! You’re the Head fucking Auror you ought to know that the world isn’t some idyll of progressive thinking.” Draco glanced quickly back at Scorpius, he was looking worried. “We can’t have this argument here, Scorpius is getting upset.”

Harry looked away again, out at the far horizon. “I don’t know if I can do this today, I don’t think I can pretend to be happy right now.”

Draco’s teeth clenched in frustration. “Look go home, I’ll think up something to tell Scorpius. Go home and cool off, then meet us at the Quidditch match. Everyone is expecting you to be there. I’ll tell Scorpius you got a message from work and had to pop back for an hour or two.”

“Why don’t you just tell him the truth,” snarled Harry.

Draco looked at him incredulously.

Harry raked his hand through his hair. “Fine. I went in to work. I’ll meet you outside the stands at half one.”

Draco nodded and Harry spun on the spot, Apparating back home with wet feet and his sandy shoes clasped in one hand.

He spent the time at home in his gym working out his anger and frustration on a punching bag and then eating left over Indian from last night for lunch along with a couple of bottles of beer. He didn’t feel any less annoyed about everything, but he felt far more able to put it aside and at least be civil. When he arrived at the Magpies home ground Apparition point and saw Draco waiting for him, looking wan and anxious, he even felt a bit sorry for blowing up at him. He walked over to them and Scorpius dragged Draco a few feet out to meet him.

“Say it Father!” he demanded.

“I’m sorry I upset you,” said Draco looking embarrassed, his eyes pleading with Harry to go along with whatever this was.

“Um… I’m sorry too?” said Harry uncertainly, glancing from Draco to Scorpius.

“Now you have to shake hands,” said Scorpius.

“Right, okay.” Harry stuck his hand out and Draco took it, for a moment they just gripped each other hard, clasping both hands together and not shaking, just holding onto each other. Something in Harry’s chest swelled, giving him a lump in his throat. He finally let go.

“Now we can go watch the match,” said Scorpius, apparently satisfied.

And so they watched the match and then went to meet the team and Harry posed for photos as he had promised Ginny he would. She poked him in the back with amusement as she posed behind him with the rest of her team mates, always entertained by his hatred of this sort of thing. She was nearing the end of her career now, Chasing was a young persons job and they’d all be in their thirties before they knew it. He knew she planned to leave in a season or two, while she was still at the top of her game. Go out with a bang as she put it. Maybe that’s what he ought to do with Draco, get out now while they still cared for each other. Before the fights and the differences dragged them into something bitter and spoiled.

He went home while Draco dropped Scorpius off at the Manor. On the low table in the living room, in front of the fire, was the dinner he had arranged for Kreacher to lay out for them back when he had still been looking forward to this weekend. All the fancy food that Draco liked, and that Harry had learned over the years to like as well. He was tempted to sweep it all onto the floor. Instead he sat in his armchair and poured himself a large glass of wine. Draco stepped through the Floo considerably later than expected, he’d had a shower and his hair was still down. He had grown it longer over the years, but still kept it shorter than his Father’s. He usually kept it tied back, when it was down he looked softer, more vulnerable. Harry wondered if he had done that intentionally.

“I thought maybe you weren’t coming,” said Harry.

“I stopped a bit to talk to Astoria,” Draco replied.

“You told her then.”

Draco sat down on the floor by the table. “Come sit with me.”

Harry came down and sat on the opposite side of the table from Draco. “What did she say?”

Draco sighed. “You know what she said.”

“That I’m right,” said Harry. “That people don’t care as much as you think they do.”

“She didn’t say you were right.” Draco poured himself wine. “But yes, she said people wouldn’t really care. She’s always agreed with you on that front. I think you both underestimate the hit my reputation would take, and not just in pureblood circles. Plenty of people wouldn’t look kindly on my sullying the reputation of Harry Potter.”

Harry leaned back against the edge of the sofa. “And your reputation is worth more than our relationship.”

“Harry...”

“No, don’t interrupt me. This was your plan, a wife and a son and a secret lover on the side. It wasn’t mine. You have what you want, but I don’t. I want a family, I always wanted a family. After I ended up here I let go of that for a while because I was trying to figure out what being here meant. I let us happen, even though I knew it couldn’t give me what I wanted, because even though I thought I was stuck here I wasn’t ready to just leave Ginny and the baby behind completely, so it wasn’t like I could go looking for something… more committed. I’ve focused on my job for seven years, and it’s been a good seven years, I’m proud of what I’ve done in that time. But this is the moment, this is when I need to make a decision about how I’m going to live the rest of my life. And where I’m going to live it. You said it yourself, Hermione is going to figure out how to open a rift and then I’ll be able to go back.”

“So you’ve made your decision,” said Draco flatly.

“No!” Harry slammed a his hand down on the table, making the glasses wobble. “Don’t do that, put it all on me. If you want me to stay then give me something to stay for!”

“Leave Astoria you mean.”

“You’re not in love with her and she’s not in love with you.”

“Move out of the Manor and live with you?”

“I don’t know, I don’t care where we live. We don’t live here in my reality, we live with Remus.”

“Astoria thinks you should move in to the Manor,” Draco said unexpectedly.

“What?”

“She thinks we should all live in the Manor, it’s big enough. She thinks if you want children we should have them there. She…” Draco suddenly sounded choked. “She thinks I shouldn’t mess this up because I’ll need someone like you to keep me in line after she’s gone.”

“Gone? What….”

“She’s dying.”

Harry stared at him.

“There’s a curse that runs in her family, from generations back. They thought it might not have passed to her, but after having Scorpius she started getting weaker. There’s time yet, but we don’t know how long. We’re hoping she makes it to see Scorpius start Hogwarts, they say that’s the most we can hope for.” Draco swallowed down his wine, his face crumpled and tired.

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I didn’t want it to be true. You say I’m not in love with her, maybe that’s so. But I do love her all the same. You of all people ought to know there’s room for more than one person in a heart, even one as cynical as mine. And she’s Scorpius’s Mother.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Sometimes I think the Malfoy name really is cursed.”

“I really am sorry, I don’t know what else to say.”

“Say you’ll give me time, let Scorpius grow up a little bit more. Old enough to understand.”

“Does he know about Astoria?”

“He knows she’s unwell. I won’t tell him she’s dying, not yet.”

Harry got up and moved around the table to sit by Draco and they curled together in front of the fire, dinner lying forgotten behind them.

–

It had taken Hermione just under a month, thanks to detailed diagrams from her alter in the other reality, to recreate the spellwork that created and sustained the magic that made inter dimensional communication possible. And as she had suspected, having the spell structure in place in the same location in both realities was creating just the environment necessary to re open an actual rift between the worlds. She had previously focused on reopening the rift in Grimmauld Place, but that had seemed to leave no trace of itself behind once fully closed. The only problem was the level and nature of the magic required to open one. All of her study pointed to the necessity of a potential life sacrifice, just as there had been inherent in the spell used before. Should wild magic deem the opening of the rift unnecessary, it would make them pay with a life. And there was no sneaking around it, it had to be a life related to the reason for opening the rift, it was tied into the nature of the spells required. One of the people who wanted the rift open had to be willing to forfeit their life to have it open, and their blood had to be used in the spellwork.

They all met together shortly after the new mirror had been finished, tuned and tested. An office occupying the same space had been set aside in both Ministries for this very purpose and it was extremely crowded. Kingsley Shacklebolt and his assistant, Hermione and most of her team, Luna, Harry, and Draco were all present. In the other reality the office was filled with much the same people, except that instead of Draco and Luna, Ginny and Snape were there.

“Good afternoon everyone,” said Hermione. “We’ve called this meeting to discuss the possibility of reopening a rift between our two realities. Has everyone here been briefed on the details and requirements of the spellwork?” Around both offices heads nodded.

“If I may speak?” said the deep voice of mirror Kingsley.

“Of course Minister,” said Hermione.

“Having discussed it with the Head of the DMLE, the Ministry feels that the spells required would be considered sacrificial blood magic and therefore Dark in nature. We have classified the material over here, and the information will not be allowed outside of the Department of Mysteries. I hope you have done the same?”

“I have been considering it, although I haven’t yet discussed it with the DMLE,” Kingsley responded. “The prospect of dimensional travel has become quite popular over here, with Harry having such a high profile in the Auror Department. So it will be a big story when we declare it illegal.”

“Not many people over here know about Harry,” mirror Hermione replied. “Just family and friends really. He’s kept a really low profile, as much as he can.”

“So you’re not going to risk opening a rift then?” asked mirror Harry.

“We have decided to allow Harry to make the decision himself as to whether to risk it,” said Kingsley. “As he is not in his original reality we feel he has the right to try and cross back if he wishes to.”

Harry fidgeted and tried not to look at Draco, who was sat a few seats away. Harry was stuck between Hermione and Kingsley, feeling like a display specimen, or a kid at a parent/teacher meeting. He looked through the mirror at Ginny. They had spoken at length yesterday about everything, but what he was going to do had still been left undecided. She had told him it was up to him, that if he came back she’d be willing to try and see if they could make it work again, but that it had to be his decision and she wasn’t sure it was worth the risk of his life. The day before he had spoken to James, with the other Harry hovering in the background nervously. He had seemed friendly, but cautious. He clearly found it confusing, and he looked to the other Harry more often than not for support. Harry felt nothing more than an odd ache for this child that looked like him, but was a stranger.

The other Harry had been firm in his decision, as he always had been. He was staying put. Even if it hadn’t been risky, he had made a home in his new reality and he had no reason to leave.

“Harry?” Hermione elbowed him in the ribs.

“Sorry, what?”

“She wants to know if you’ve made your decision,” said Draco from across the room.

Harry met his eyes. They were full of emotions that didn’t show on his face. “I...” He looked into the mirror at Ginny, and at the other Harry. “I don’t...” He thought about James, and about the child with the blonde hair and the green eyes. He looked at Draco again. He thought about moving into the mansion once Scorpius was old enough to understand what was happening. “You said the spell would take my life if the magic felt I didn’t need to open the rift.” He looked at Ginny. “I don’t need to, if I did it I’d be coming back on a vague hope of it working out, and leaving behind things I’d miss a great deal. I don’t think it’s enough, I don’t need it enough. It’s just not worth my life, and I think it might cost that. I’m sorry.”

Mirror Ginny nodded her understanding.

“You're certain?” asked Kingsley from beside him.

Harry met his own eyes and saw his other self glance briefly over to Draco. He smiled, “Yes, I’m certain.”


End file.
